Joe Gamer

I’ve been a longtime fan of The Knights of the Dinner Table comics from way back in the days when the comic appeared in Shadis magazine. Shadis! That was a while back. For a while the comic appeared in Dragon magazine (DRAGON!) and eventually found its way to comic book format. The guys at Kenzer & Co. STUFF the pages of KoDT and Jolly Blackburn is the writer / artist. Let me tell you KoDT is FUNNY stuff. Actually you don’t have to believe me, the guys at Kenzer are GIVING AWAY a comic in PDF form. Go ahead, download that, read it and come back. I’ll wait.

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Funny stuff right?! If you said “no” stop reading now and go away, I have no use for you. Philistine!

Anyway, for a while I visited the Kenzer&Co forums pretty regularly. Jolly often posted during those times and you just get to know folks … or at least know what they want you to know about them, but then again that’s all we really know about most folks anyway. Let me just say Jolly is VERY likable and much loved by my wife and I as well as a great many other fans.

So what does this have to do with AEG?

Recently Jolly and his wife Barbara lost their daughter Amber. I can’t imagine their pain. BoardGameGeek (another industry class act) started a drive to raise money for the Blackburn family, and AEG stepped in with some really significant donations. I can’t afford a single one, but I strongly encourage folks to go over to BBG, register, and bid on something neat. Also take the time to look at all the companies and individuals donating items for this family’s cause. Gaming is filled with some really excellent people.

When you are done go hug your kids, kiss your spouse, and remember to let the ones you love know it. You never know how much longer they will be with you, so make every moment count. Now if you don’t mind I’m wrapping this one up to go read a book to my little girl. Hopefully I won’t choke up.

© 2011, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

Sweet, unassuming slacker Scott Pilgrim recently had his heart broken.  The 23 year old Canadian has lived in a slump for nearly a year, but things are looking up!  His band doesn’t suck as bad anymore and he recently brought home a 17-year old Chinese-Canadian girlfriend, Knives Chau.  Things are easy and life is simple… that is until the vibrantly fashionable Ramona Flowers rollerblades her way into his dreams, literally.  Suddenly confronted with true love, Scott has a choice: grow up and date the woman of his dreams or continue to be the lackluster slacker he has always been.  However, dating Ramona has a caveat: Scott Pilgrim must fight and defeat Ramona’s Seven Evil Exes!

Combining a cute 20-somethings romance with insane video game references and off-the wall humor, the Scott Pilgrim series by Canadian cartoonist Brian Lee O’Malley is one of the biggest surprises this year.  A few months ago I had never heard of the quirky graphic novel.  I happened upon it while watching the movie Kick-Ass in the theater where I saw the trailer for the movie adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, named after the second book.  I was a little taken aback; the trailer began as a sweet, breezy romance about a normal guy and a girl with pink hair… until the guy flies in from the roof during Scott’s first concert and challenges him to a battle.  Yes.  He flies in.  Literally.  Not only that but sound effects are emoted like the old Adam West Batman series (thock! smack! pow!) as well as an announcer that bellows “KO” at the end of a fight!  It seemed a little too goofy and I put it in the back of my mind.  I steadily started to see more about it and after the second trailer that shows Chris Evans and Brandon Routhe as Evil Exes, I was sold.

I purchased the first two graphic novels and read through them both in an evening before proceeding to do whatever I could to get my grubby hands on the others.  I don’t read many graphic novels due to the cost and length of many series but I certainly made an exception for Scott Pilgrim.  I now own all six volumes and do not regret it, not one bit!

The series is pretty light-hearted with good moments of mature themes as Scott matures into his ill-conceived relationship with Ramona.  Video game references litter the stories, from a “pee” bar when he uses the restroom to the name of his bands (old band is named after an old Sega Genesis game “Kid Chameleon” and his new band is “Sex Bob-omb”).  Logic is thrown right out the door with Japanese roboticists and vegan psychics and all with a kind of tongue-in-cheek reality that seems to ask the reader “What?  Your world isn’t like this?”  It’s all really funny and spastic but the author does not let the witty banter and pop culture references get in the way of telling the story of young love.  Young, stupid, wonderful love.

I admit I liked Scott Pilgrim because I can relate to him.  He’s my age with my sensibilities.  I’m not as lazy or stupid as him, but I get the references and humor as if he were a good friend of mine.  I’ve read that people over the age of 25 would not like it because it feels like an “ADD induced MTV product” but since I neither have ADD or any love for MTV, I don’t really get it.  Instead I would say anyone who enjoys funny stories about the humor of love written by a nerd for nerds, please please give these books a try.  Besides, I know several guys over 25 that love the series anyway!

Comments?  More Scott Pilgrim reviews and previews to come!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

I have a few more thoughts on 4e, but this is mainly for those who are interested in playing in my campaign.  I am toying with a few ideas here and there, so I thought I would express them here.  It’s mostly about what I want to do if/when I DM 4e again as to make it more interesting for me and the players.

1) Continue where we left off: We were running through the first official Wizards modules.  I could keep going through them, but I’m unsure of the quality of the next one.  It seems very unique, but it’s just a big dungeon crawl.  I have the tools to make it more than just that (they have suggestions in the book) but if I run it verbatim its nothing but fighting.  Not as terrible as it sounds, there’s some pretty cool scenes, but just a warning.

2) Eberron: I know a few of us like the Eberron setting and I could run a bit through it.  I have a published campaign available that starts things going, but I can expound upon it or just use the books… either way, just suggesting.

3) Original setting: I can go out on a limb to make some crap up.  Not sure if I could be any good at it, since I haven’t done it before, but if I did it right it would be a lot of fun.

I’m thinking of restarting because of all the new stuff that’s out.  I’d suggest Dark Sun, but it won’t come out til August and I have already promised to run it when available.  However, with Martial Power 2 coming out tomorrow, there are Martial Practices available that I’m interested in seeing used (essentially Rituals for martial characters… stuff like Forge Armor, Forge Weapon, Alter Ego, Master Artisan, or Perfect Forgery that replaces the profession and craft skills).  If we continue, I will still give the option of reorganizing each character if you guys want so you can work with some of the newer things (Saul, Aria and Yuriel can trade a feat for Arcane Familiar, Pylia can swap out her class feature for a Beast Companion, etc).

Just let me know on here and I’ll toy with some ideas!

© 2010, Jeff Hollingsworth. All rights reserved.

When I got home tonight the little one was watching Mulan which makes me very happy. I love it when she watches stories with strong female characters, especially in a fantasy setting. Obviously ancient China isn’t exactly a fantasy setting but when you add dragons and spirits its close enough. Add on top the love between the father and daughter and you might be able to see why I hope she watches this over and over again.

During the course of the movie my little girl had a few questions. Here were the two I wanted to share that I thought fully illustrates just how geeky I can be:
Q) (After Mulan has taken a vicious sword strike she falls in pain.) What’s wrong with her?
A) She just took 1d8 + 12 damage to the chest.
Q) (Upon seeing the BBG’s hand break the surface of the snow after the avalanche.) What’s that?
A) The bad guy. You know it’s hard to keep a high level barbarian down.

Now I must go as The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother is playing and is taking up a good bit of my attention now. That is a whole other genre of entertainment to get my daughter hooked on though perhaps in a few more years when she can really start to appreciate the genius of Gene Wilder.

© 2010, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.

For those of you in my “A Hero Restored” campaign, I wish a Merry Christmas with the gift of free magic items. Please spend 25,000 gp on any magic items from the DMG that the party desires.

How you distribute is up to you.

© 2009, Joseph Little. All rights reserved.