Another Point of Singularity

One of my favorite games of all time is COSMIC ENCOUNTER, which dates back to the 70s. The game has been reprinted many times by various publishers-- Eon, Games Workshop, Mayfair, and Avalon Hill. The latest edition, by Fantasy Flight Games, gets high marks by Tom and now I'm TOTALLY JONESING to buy CE for myself, even if I have the Mayfair and Avalon Hill editions already! Sheesh! Such a dilemma!

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!

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