GeekSix

Geeky Clean!

Autumn
Monday
6:47 pm

There are exciting things going on at my favorite soap website (and yes, I do have a favorite soap website–how can I not love a girl who has made it her mission to eradicate that 3rd-day-in-the-convention-hall funk using the positive reinforcement of RPG dice?)  Geeky Clean has made Cthulhu soap.  I know, the horror, right?

But just when you thought your were going to go insane from the awesome, she also has new Eye of Sauron soap.  If that doesn’t make me excited and quest filled every time I hop in the shower I’m not sure what will.

I had a virtual sit down with Geeky Cleans proprietor to talk about her ..read more

Dungeons & Dragons is for devil worshippers!

Jason
Monday
10:37 am

Ahh 1985. It was a time of Reagan, of when OJ Simpson was still a good guy, New Coke is announced and the world proclaimed that playing Dungeons & Dragons is dangerous for children.

I can remember the when my Mom and Dad sat me down and told me that I was no longer to play a game that was against God and played by devil worshipers.

See it was just about this time that I started to dabble in Dungeons & Dragons on the hot summer days in Texas. I would roll out of bed, throw a hat on and head up the street. Or one street over. Nothing very heavy, ..read more

Life without Dungeons and Dragons: A kid’s tale of alternate realities

Josh
Thursday
5:10 pm

Editor’s note: This is a really long post. It’s my coming-of-age true tale of one of my most formative geek memories, and  it’s something I’ve wanted to write for more than a year.

We couldn’t play games on Mike’s TI-99 computer that day in 1986. I can’t remember exactly why, but as a result, we wound up in his room, listless and looking for a less technological way to pass the afternoon.

Two hours later, I raced my dirt bike home over suburban asphalt, breathless with excitement. “Mom… mom…” I panted when I got inside. “I played the coolest thing! You could be an elf, or a warrior, and you got ..read more

Telepresence around the game table

Josh
Monday
3:38 pm

As you know, I use a lot of technology in running my RPG campaigns. A laptop, intensely organized music playlists, projector-based maps and layered Photoshop files have become as important to me as dice and beer at the game table.

But I’ve never really had much success at remoting people in for gaming. Back in the late 90s, some friends and I decided that we could keep up our college RPG campaign via remote. We spent hours on WebRPG, a tabletop simulator that allowed you to “code” objects and build character sheets.

We spent forever getting the materials ready, but never even got to a full game. It was too ..read more

Help Haiti and get some great RPG sourcebooks

Josh
Thursday
8:47 pm

When I run RPGs, I’ve become a big fan of using PDFs instead of hardcover books. If you’ve got a laptop, you’ll never go back — PDFs are searchable, easily scannable, and a complete joy to use in gameplay.

DriveThruRPG makes it easy, and offers both big-studio releases and independent publishers a chance to get there wares out there without having to go through distributors.

And now they’re using the considerable collection of wares to benefit victims of the Haiti earthquake. It’s a very classy idea on DriveThruRPG’s part, and has received a great response from publishers whose work is posted there.

After 2 days, DriveThruRPG raised ..read more

Review: The Serenity Big Damn Heroes Handbook

Josh
Monday
11:02 am

When the Serenity RPG came out a few years ago, I eagerly snapped it up and it became my re-entry into the world of pen-and-paper RPGs. I figured it’d be a short-run thing, and maybe — maybe — spawn a sourcebook. But, to Margaret Weis Productions’ credit, the system is still running strong; it boasts half a dozen sourcebooks and a thriving fan community. Some people have maligned the system’s lack of hard-core rules, but I can appreciate it for its fast-paced gameplay and character-driven drama.

Because I like to support the company’s future endeavors, I try to pick up whatever they kick out that takes place in the Firefly ‘verse. ..read more

Coming out of the geek closet to my daughter

Josh
Monday
2:11 pm

Ever since my daughter was born, there’s been a talk I’ve dreaded having.

The “birds & the bees,” you ask? Psh. Not a problem in today’s modern life — besides, I’m still a few years away from that talk. I have a deeper, tougher conversation that, up until recently, I’ve been nervous about for seven years:

Daddy plays role playing games.

You see, when I was growing up, my family was very loving, but anything dealing with the craft of imagination, science fiction or stereotypically nerdy past-times was met with silence or misunderstanding at best.

When we moved to another town, I all but buried my geekly desires deep within myself in an effort ..read more

When things don’t go according to plan, you roll with it

Josh
Wednesday
9:56 pm

I stayed up late Monday night. Too late.

The reason for denying my serotonin the ability to take root was borne of an act of geeky selflessness. In 20 hours, I was going to be running another installment of my Firefly RPG campaign, and I wanted to make sure the players have enough to do.

You see, I don’t believe in running “on rails” -type campaigns where the players only have the illusion of choice. If people want a limited set of actions, go play a video game. But I also don’t believe in providing such an open-ended campaign that players don’t have enough detail.

So I stayed up late, ..read more

On starting up a role-playing campaign in the Firefly ‘verse

Josh
Monday
2:58 pm

The Firefly/Serenity universe is one of the best out-of-the-box settings for a role playing game that ever existed: A group of people on the raggedy edge, trying to scrape out a living in a postwar setting that blends the best elements of the Wild West and dystopian future.

As you know, I’m a big fan. (I started www.fireflyrpg.com a few years ago, and have a Mark II version that’s currently being refreshed with new content at test.fireflyrpg.com .) So, when Twitter friend and Geek6 reader @benhamill mentioned that he might — might — be running a Serenity-style game in the near future, I couldn’t pass ..read more

Why I’ve pulled my players off of Shadowrun, and back to Firefly

Josh
Tuesday
2:35 pm

Last week, in a mixed opinion among players, we shelved Shadowrun to resume our Firefly/Serenity campaign. This ended the pileup of dozens of hours in character creation, attempting to learn the rules and getting halfway through an introductory mission.

Despite all of my effort to buy, print and bind the electronic PDFs, and all of the time spent wrapping my head around the rules of augmented reality, matrix combat and technomancers, I started the rebellion. In the end, I pushed the players into Shadowrun, and I pulled them back into Firefly.

Why go through all of the stress? Simple. Or rather, simplicity. I missed the easy fun that Firefly represented. ..read more