At the tail end of 2017, I finished Gods of Riverworld, by Philip Jose Farmer, the last book in the Riverworld series. This book was quite the departure from the other books of the series both in the setting and the thought experiment that it poses. As such, this book felt far different from the others in the series, even if it shared many of the same characters. Continue reading Gods of Riverworld
All posts by The Plaid Mentat
Mean Girls
I recognized quite some time ago that my movie knowledge is exceptionally spiked – I saw a lot of movies in the early to mid-nineties, but almost nothing post 2000 when I went away to college, and then I had a stretch of not owning a TV nor having any money/desire to see movies in theatres when I went to grad school. So, when the memes started zinging around the office about a movie that came out over a decade ago, I got odd looks – it’s old so I must have seen it… …right?
Well, that’s how I ended up watching Mean Girls over my Christmas holiday. Continue reading Mean Girls
Looking Forward into 2018
It’s been another year, so now it’s time to set my resolutions for 2018. As I think about this a bit, I’ve always been a bit ambitious in my resolutions, and my success rate isn’t great… …But, I’m going to continue that trend anyway. Here’s what I’m going to try to accomplish in 2018. Continue reading Looking Forward into 2018
Looking Back at 2017 – Resolutions
As usual, I’m taking the last post of the year to review my resolutions and see how I did. Here’s the page pulled out of the sidebar: Link Continue reading Looking Back at 2017 – Resolutions
Looking Back at 2017 – In General
Well, here it is, the last week of 2017, so it’s time to kick off my retrospective of the year. All things considered, this year was pretty decent to me if a bit on the rough side. I made some pretty significant life changes, and managed to come out the other side in good spirits.
Here are a couple of sweeping generalizations around how 2017 worked out: Continue reading Looking Back at 2017 – In General
Ye Olde Pick of the Day: Do You Hear What I Hear?
Said the night wind to the little lamb,
Do you see what I see?
Way up in the sky little lamb,
Do you see what I see?
A star, a star,
Dancing in the night,
With a tail as big as a kite,
With a tail as big as a kite.
Said the little lamb to the Shepard boy,
Do you hear what I hear?
Ringing through the sky Shepard boy,
Do you hear what I hear?
A song, a song,
High above the trees,
With a voice as big as the sea,
With a voice as big as the sea.
Said the Shepard boy to the mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
In your palace wall mighty king,
Do you know what I know?
A child, a child,
Shivers in the cold,
Let us bring him silver and gold,
Let us bring him silver and gold.
Said the king to the people everywhere,
Listen to what I say.
Pray for peace people everywhere,
Listen to what I say.
The child, the child,
Sleeping in the night,
He will bring us goodness and light,
He will bring us goodness and light.
He will bring us goodness and light!
D&D Dicemasters
I recently found myself playing Dicemasters again, with the release of the latest Dungeons and Dragons set, Tomb of Annihilation. My interest in Dicemasters has really only been for the D&D sets – I like the distance from the superheroes and the familiar fantasy setting, even if it isn’t the D&D I grew up with. For this entry, I wanted to look at each of the three D&D sets and talk about the various pros and cons – what worked and what didn’t. Continue reading D&D Dicemasters
Periodic Table of Videos
I’ve recently been spending a fair bit of my free time watching the Periodic Table of Videos produced by Brady Haran. I heard about these from a good friend, and was immediately intrigued – videos about all the elements sounded like fun. As I started diving into them, not only were they fun, they had a lot of very good information. Continue reading Periodic Table of Videos
Escape Pod
I’ve recently been listening to a lot of Escape Pod to fill the time when I’m doing something with my hands or taking my daily walk. I have enjoyed getting back into audio short stories, and Escape Pod in particular delivers that particular enjoyment with a bit of nostalgia. Continue reading Escape Pod
Warmahordes Narrative League – Designing a Character
This year’s narrative league was intended to be one part narrative and one part game design. The narrative part was about writing stories about the characters as they made their journey of discovery and rose to power within their respective factions (you may have read a few here on my blog over the last few months). The game design part was built with the idea of engaging everyone in the group to design a character from a mere solo, through journeyman, and finally as a full warcaster or warlock.
Below, I will show the final rules for each of my characters, and discuss a bit about the game design for them. Continue reading Warmahordes Narrative League – Designing a Character