Sunday Link Smashup for August 24, 2008
photo credit: disavian | Got Links?
Lots of amazing links for you today, in the wake of Gen Con. Let’s get started, shall we?
I want to take a moment to welcome Mike Mearls to the D&D blogosphere. Mike is one a handful of truly GREAT game designers, IMHO. Check out his inaugural post entitled In Praise of Wandering Monsters.
Speaking of designers, another favorite of mine is Jim Wyatt. Check out the podcast interview that the boys from Critical Hits scored with Jim: Critical Hits Podcast #7: Interview with James Wyatt.
I have to link to this post:YA5WKEPACLB*: What Gen Con 2008 meant for me from Chatty DM, only if it proves he can actually write a post with less than 200 words. He just doesn’t usually want to 
James at Capturing Fantasy offers us an excellent post on Letting Go of You When You Play. James tells us how to become immersed in our characters, and truly stretch our roleplaying muscles.
I got a link back from the Wired.com blog earlier this week when I pontificated on the McCain staffer’s comments on D&D. Check it out! I’m in the big time 
It occurred to me that maybe not all of my readers here are familiar with my writing blog, The Writing Journey. I mention it here for those of you who may have attended the RPG blogger seminar at Gen Con, or if you listened to the podcast of that event.
Back in July, Dante over at Stupid Ranger had an excellent piece on The Silmarillion. If you haven’t read that particular Tolkien classic, give Dante’s insights a look and see if he can convince you. I personally think it should be required reading for all game masters.
In light of my recent discussion on trying to rediscover my gaming identity, I offer you Yax’s thougts on My golden rule is more golden than yours - which describes, essentially, why Yax keeps coming back to D&D over other RPGs.
Finally, check out Gnome Stew’s First Contest: Win Custom Sound Effects for Your Game and, well, win custom sound effects for your game.
Make sure an visit these folks, and tell ‘em Bob sent you!
Sunday RPG Link Smashup- June 15, 2008
Just because I liked the pic so much, and because the photographer commented on my blog last week… Let’s make her the unofficial Sunday RPG Link Smashup mascot, shall we? Disavian, What do you say?
photo credit: disavian | Got Links?
Anyways, let’s move on.
So, what’s going on in the world of RPGs this week?
Well, for starters, Chatty has an awesomely funny post (at least it’s funny to me) about how he can’t seem to let a paladin live in his campaigns: I Don’t do Paladins Really Well… I have the same problem, but with any character played by my friend Phil.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet here, so I will now. If you don’t already Do Yax’s Sunday Morning Quiz right after reading my Link Smashup, you should. Just sayin’.
Bartoneous, who is fast becoming one of my favorite D&D blog writers, has another awesome post on the 4E/WoW question: How to Compare Birds to Fish
Greywulf is also quickly rising on my fave blogger scale. Check out Wolverine Is A Warlock to see why.
It’s amazing what 32 hours straight of 4E will do to a gaming group. Critical Ankle Bites has it here: Final thoughts after marathon 4e release day events.
All right, time to cash it in, folks. See you again real soon!
Sunday RPG Link Smashup- June 8, 2008
The core 4E books are out, and reactions are starting to spread across the blogosphere. Here are a few of the most interesting articles on 4E That I’ve found this week:
Martin over at Gnome Stew does it again by recounting his first impressions of 4E. Some of the phrases that jump out at me: “Mercifully brief setup” and “Solid simplifications.” You may not may not like the idea of simplification or the rules convergence that leads to simplification, but you can’t deny it’s present in 4E.
photo credit: disavian | Got Links?
I missed Game Day due to the fact that we live waaay out in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately, Chatty’s got a Game Day recap, along with his thoughts about 4E.
The boys over at Critical Hits have a couple of 4E Roundtable discussions worth taking a look at. Among the interesting concepts? Half-elves apparently blow.
Greywulf, who inspired my post on balance the other day, has a compelling final analysis of Core 4E. His take? 4E is a mixed bag, but an improvement.
I even have a couple of non-4E articles for you to check out too.
Ben Overmyer of Silver Gryphon Games has a guest post at Capturing Fantasy on the Four Types of RPG Players. These are the four player archetypes we’ve talked about for years, but Ben’s put them in an interesting context here. There’s also still time to get into the CF launch contest if you haven’t already done so.
Speaking of contests, Yax is giving more stuff away. This time, he’s offering up 3 Forgotten Realms books. Get over there and enter today!
———-
OK, I know I’ve overloaded you with posts today, but I wanted to offer one more thought. Several of us in the gaming blog world use Twitter on a regular basis, and it has proven to be a much more usable tool for me in finding good RPG links than my feed reader. Here are some of the folks I recommend following:
@WritingJourney (That’s me)
@GreyWulf (Um, that’s Greywulf, of course)
@ChattyDM (You know Chatty)
@MenwithPens (from Capturing Fantasy)
@VegasPenMan (Harry from Capturing Fantasy)
If you’re on twitter, feel free to post your ID in the comments to this post.
Tomorrow: Some talk about the new name, and discussion of who almost won. Don’t miss it!
Dungeons and Dragons Sunday Link Smashup for June 01, 2008
I’ve got some amazing links for you this week, so let’s get right to them!
Sandie Law had a great post a while ago called Geeks are Everywhere. This made me think of the Assets or liabilities? question we’ve been bantering around here for a while.
This is your last chance to get in on the Name This Blog, Win A Prize contest. I’ll be closing the comments at midnight EST on Wednesday. Help me out, and get a free D&D book in the process!
Martin over at Gnome Stew wrote an excellent article on 17 Steps to GMing a New RPG for the First Time. This is especially useful right now, as many of us are about to run a new RPG (D&D 4E) for the first time. Give Martin’s article a lookie.
Speaking of 4E (and who isn’t right now, really?) if you haven’t read Chatty’s and Critical Hits reviews of Keep on the Shadowfell, you ought to. We played our first session last night, and I’m hoping to have a review for you by the end of the week.
If you’re a player creating a new character, or planning on creating one any time soon, make sure you give Yax’s Pimp my character - a community project a look. Let his community do the work for you.
That’s all for now, folks. Tomorrow, I’ve got an interview with Harrison McLeod of Capturing Fantasy and Men with Pens, so be sure to come back!
Dungeons and Dragons Sunday Link Smashup
As you may have noticed, I’ve stopped doing Friday Fantasy Fun. Never fear, though! You can find the same great links right here at the Sunday Link Smashup.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Jonathan Drain has some excellent advice about role-playing monster intelligence at When Bad Monsters Get Smart.
Chatty DM had an interesting adventure idea post in his Forums. While I’m talking about Chatty, make sure you go visit his blog and subscribe to his RSS or E-mail feed. Last I heard, he was quickly approaching 300 readers!
You’ve only got 20 days left to win the 4E core books from Dungeonmastering.com. Get over there and enter now! While you’re there, give Yax your Gen Con advice.
I’ve always liked Dante over at Stupid Ranger (as well as the rest of the crew, of course.) Dante’s take on DMing seems to so often mirror my own. Now, I find that our taste in music is similar, as well. Check out Behind the Screen: Inspiration from an unlikely source.
I’ve come across RPG Theory Review for the first time this week. I’m intrigued, to say the least. Give it a lookie, then come back and tell me your thoughts.
For the more academically-minded among you, check out Orcs still equal “savage peoples”. I’ll tell you offhand that I categorically disagree with the writer’s conclusions, but it’s still interesting reading.
For all you single guys, check out Geek’s Dream Girl. This geek girl is a self-proclaimed dating expert, and you could do worse than to try out her advice. After all, what you’re doing right now isn’t exactly working, is it?
Here’s an interesting post called A small idea: Scope of effect. Essentially, the post argues about how we understand a magical world, what magic does to a world on a large scale, and how we deal with it in terms of world design. Very thoughtful stuff.
Make sure to check out Sue London’s blog, Thoughts That Get Stuck In My Head. If you like the “What kind of Hobbit are you” quizzes, make sure to check her blog out daily. She’s definitely on top of the latest and greatest in that area.
My good friend and favorite up-and-coming novelist, Kam Franklin, offered his thoughts a couple of weeks back on Angels and epic destinies. Kam hits both topics on the nose.
I want to leave you with a post that’s not Dungeons and Dragons-related, but still worth a read. Dave Navarro is a man that will teach you how to get 30 hours out of a day and how to kick your own ass. Grab your tissue box and read Wake Up, Damn It! You Won’t Get A Second Chance.
There. That oughta keep you busy for a day or so. Come back tomorrow, I’ve got some interesting posts planned for this week. Better yet, just subscribe via RSS or via E-mail so you don’t miss a thing! If you can’t wait (and really, who can?) follow me on Twitter.
-
Updates
-
-
Awesome Deals!
