THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Since I had to make up the hours from our little trip to Disneyland (see below) on Tuesday, I had to work late this week.  It was especially difficult because, since it was Labor Day on Monday, I only had three weekdays to use to make up the work.  It was even more difficult because a house insurance person was appointed to come over to the house early Wednesday and came really late.  This meant I had to make up even MORE hours.  Needless to say it’s a hectic week.

FAMILY

We wanted to take Munchkin to Disneyland for her birthday.  We chose not to take her on her birthday months since it was still summer vacation time, which meant that it was peak season.  It would have been crowed and the lines for the rides would have been awful. Taking advantage of the fact that we live in Southern California, we decided to wait for an off season month and go on a weekday, thus avoiding the crowds. We chose Tuesday of this week.  I took some pictures and missed a lot of good picture moments which I’m going to have to supplement with drawings from my head. In any case, I’ll be writing about our trip for the next few weeks, when I get a chance.

To go to Part 1 Click Here.

PODCASTS

So I write a lot about table top role playing games. Well, if you’ve ever wondered what playing one would be like, there are a few podcasts out there where gamers record their game sessions for everyone to hear.  One of these, and by far the most entertaining one you can listen to, is the Dungeons and Dragons game session podcasts.

Starring such internet celebrities as:

The folks at Penny Arcade (webcomic):

• Mike Krahulik (Gabe from Penny Arcade): as Jim Darkmagic of the New Hampshire Darkmagics
• Jerry Holkins (Tycho from Penny Arcade): as Omin Dran, CEO of Acquisitions Incorporated

The creator of PvP (webcomic):

• Scott Kurtz: as Binwin Bronzebottom

and of Star Trek Next Generation fame and geek superstar extraordinaire:

• Wil Wheaton: as “Al”.

They all play the funniest game of D&D 4th edition I’ve ever heard.  It truly is entertaining to listen to.

They’ve been playing the game for quite a few sessions already.  I will put a link below starting with their newest adventure.

If you like any of these guy’s web comics (THE most successful on the internet) or  Wil Wheaton’s comedy (which is fantastic), you owe it to yourself to listen to this podcast.

Episode One of their new adventure.

Episode Two of their new adventure.

Caution: The podcast contains strong language.

ROLE PLAYING GAMES

…and speaking of Dungeons and Dragons…

As you may know, D&D is now on it’s 4th edition (4E) and it’s a bit of a pricey hobby to get into…BUT…

If you want to get into it and don’t want to spend any money, there are a lot of people who have created “retro-clones” of the original editions of D&D. Editions 0 thru 2.

For an in depth look through all these books go to: To the Blogmobile! (which is where I got all my info).

Here’s the gist of what you need to know. The games below are free to download:

Inspired by: Dungeons & Dragons (1974) and Supplements (1979)

• Swords & Wizardry: White Box
• Swords & Wizardry: Core Rules  (ENnie award winning free game!)
  
• Microlite74

Inspired by: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (1978)

• OSRIC  (Old School Reference & Index Compilation)
• Labyrinth Lord
• Basic Fantasy

All these games have a lot of support from fans and are compatible with any old school D&D supplements and modules you can find on the net.

It is also possible to find the original D&D books to download.  I recommend the retro-clones first because the original games’ rules are poorly layout out and often confusing.  Once you’ve read the much better written retro-clones, it will become much easier to figure out the what the original rules are trying to say. (Not to mention that I’m not sure it’s legal, but I could be wrong).

I also recommend downloading and reading this:

• A quick primer of old school gaming.

It shows the difference in how these old school rule differ from the new modern versions of D&D, and the mindset you need in order to understand how the game is meant to be interpreted and played. In other words, why the game is so simple and how in blazes do you play something so simple.

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