I know Joe Steadman from the old days of the Dice Tower, which I would sometimes call in to. He's a straightforward kind of guy; a wargamer, cop, and father of four (soon five). He was the "wargame voice" for Tom Vasel's "Euro Voice" right up until Episode 50 of the DT. He has since moved to Michigan and become a policeman (he had been a minister of some sort). I was glad to see that Joe has taken to the airwaves (cablewaves?) again with a Gaming Journal of his own, this one focusing on wargames. Instead of an audio program, the Gaming Journal is done in video and is available on You Tube. You can see the full gamut of the episodes HERE.



There's no hype here, I like the honesty and candor being displayed, and the fact that he brings his wife and kids into the production in spots.

Good work, Joe!

Cringing, I recommend...

I love podcasts and podcasting technology, I've made no secret about it. When I discover a podcast that features some of my geekboy interests, I take notice. Such a 'cast is HistoryPodcast, produced with earnest effort and zeal by Jason Watts. Jason admits that he took to the study of history late in life, and was greatly inspired to create HistoryPodcast by one of my favorite podcasters, Bob Packett, the history teacher that brings us History According to Bob, which is worth a listen any day of the week. Jason has kept pretty true to his word to produce these podcasts on a regular basis; he has made a weekly cast for the last 80 shows or so (give or take a week), which all can be downloaded from the show's Archive Page. I like what Jason selects as his subjects for episodes... many of which I had some prior knowledge of, some of which were a complete mystery to me, and some were topics I took for granted and learned something new about them.

With that said, I have to mention the "cringing" part, and I mean this constructively. This guy needs to depart from the script occassionally. He writes well enough, but his reading style starts off rather slow and formal and doesn't improve much until he starts departing from the script, which isn't often. The number of misqueues and mispronounciations literally made me wince. For instance, I was delighted to see a podcast on the subject of H.P. Lovecraft, one of my favorite fiction writers, and downloaded it eagerly. I had noticed some mispronounciations in prior 'casts but this one really took the cake.. pronouncing "Cthulhu" as "Cathool" and August DerLETH as "Dereth" and pulling the second syllable in "Arkham" so it sounds more like ArkHAM instead of the generally accepted "Ark'm". That really had me wincing. I realize Jason probably produces these casts on a tight deadline and he might not have the time to check on such things, but a quick check with someone, anyone authoritative on the subject would help his podcast tremendously. I will say this much, he is improving with time. The Lovecraft cast was early on (in his 80 plus count), and he seems much more comfortable with the microphone now than he was then. The sheer fact that he has doggedly put out 80 episodes on historical subjects is enough for me to admire him, and so, wincing, I recommend dropping by!

Just Added

Being a Short Discourse on Miniature Gaming

One of the very, very few sites that actually serves as a meta-level discussion of the miniature gaming hobby. There are tons of websites dedicated to this and that facet of a hobby, this one explaines the what and the why. It reminds me strongly of Otto Schmidt's general purpose "Why we Wargame" pamphlet he put together years ago.


Historical Miniatures Gaming: the Greatest Hobby in the World

Another meta level site; this one is more concerned with specific genres (not all of them historical, btw). Very witty and informative.

Miniature Gamer Radio

Not what it sounds like. Actually a podcast, and it hasn't been updated lately. Still, I have high hopes.

Just a few items of note, crunched into a post.

Jim Van Verth, the co-creator of the free REALPOLITIK Diplomacy adjudicator is already a minor hero in my book because he pours so much time into making a damned useful tool (realpolitik) for free. I had some problems with RP during my last DIPLOMACY game run on here (SINGULARITY ONE) and had to switch to JDIP to save the game, but I still like the general look and functionality of RP better than JDIP.

So Jim really didn't have to lift his pinkie to add to his exalted status of selfless people that I admire from a distance (not that that will get you even a cup of coffee!).

Vintage Gamer podcast

Now it turns out that Jim is running one of my favorite gaming podcasts going right now. VINTAGE GAMER is not known for its frequency of publication or the dynamic audio presence of Jim (who speaks in a rather quiet and "monotonal" speaking voice). VG is, however, one of the few game podcasts out there that feeds my nostalgia impulse. Very few of the games that Jim covers in his shows were published after the mid-90s. Therefore, they land squarely in the middle of my gaming 'youth' and have receded into a dim misty memory of pleasant past experience. See my Microgame Index if you want an explanation of that impulse. Recent shows on DEMONLORD, CAN'T STOP and especially DIPLOMACY were excellent. I recommend this show for all of you folks who "remember when".

Bringing back Barbarian Prince?

The latest 'cast is on one of my favorite Dwarfstar games of all time, BARBARIAN PRINCE. As Jim is wont to do, he goes through the basic mechanics of BP, in depth. It's a very good episode. A while back, maybe almost two years ago, I published a session of my last solo BP adventure and it eventually found its way up to the Boardgamegeek, HERE and HERE. I'm tempted to post another solitaire adventure on here at some point, that's a fun exercise.

Skullcrusher Mountain

Also on a tip from Jim, I found Jonathan Coulton’s site and downloaded "Skullcrusher Mountain" last night. This is a hysterically funny 'love' song as sang from an evil villain from a James Bond picture's point of view. My favorite lyrics:

I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don’t like it
What’s with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don’t like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn’t it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?

I laughed so hard, I gladly sent the guy a buck.

Costikyan in the latest ESCAPIST

I got my normal email blurb from THE ESCAPIST that they have a new issue out. I've mentioned them on here before, which apparently hacked off the author enough to write in. Well, I'm not taking cudgels to this issue, and actually am strongly recommending Greg Costikyan's "IT ALL STARTED WITH PAPER" article, a broad survey of board gaming. Very well written. I have disagreed with some of Costikyan's conclusions before, but can't argue with this piece. Check it out.

A Random Gnome's Lair

Found a great blog from (who else? Jim!) called the GNOME'S LAIR. Dunno who's running this but I like his style-- very nostalgic in places, especially about "retro" computer games. And if you read here regular, you know I'm ALL about nostalgia.

Little Ol' Me? In a Podcast?

Last thing: I've agreed to assist Tom Vasel in future podcasts for THE DICE TOWER, contributing samllish bits mostly dedicated to wargaming as a sort of "replacement" (though not really) for the outgoing Joe Steadman. I'm calling my section THEORY AND PRACTICE, because I don't really want to focus solely on reviewing titles or what passes for "gaming news" in wargaming. For one thing, I won't be on often enough to have anything "newsworthy" to say, and for another, it gets done to death elsewhere. So I thought it might be fun to illustrate wargaming CONCEPTS, like why we do what we do... that way I can sneak in miniatures material along with my boardgame stuff. It should be fun.

So stay tuned.

This time for BATTLESTATIONS, a game I really like. You win a copy by pinning a pin on the DICE TOWER Frapr map. Here, I'll make it easy for you.

http://www.frappr.com/thedicetower/map#addyourself