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Another month has passed in which you have been spared my output. Take refuge dear readers, the reprieve ends now!

Although I may have been idle these past weeks, the rest of the world was not. Busily churning out quality content for your benefit and mine, here are a few of the things that have drawn my attention:

Wil Wheaton has been having a lot of fun with his revived podcast Radio Free Burrito. Besides his acting and writing talents, Wil has an ear for music and other interesting sound bites that he peppers throughout his show. Definitely worth a listen.

My withdrawal from tabletop gaming has been difficult and painful. It’s absence consumes my waking thoughts and has left me a sour, mindless shadow of my former self. Dragon Age has helped ease the suffering but it is a temporary solution at best. I require creative output to soothe the savage beast within and DMing a 4e campaign right now would hit that sweet spot like the fist of an angry god.

I’ll be at PAX East at the end of March. D&D 4e? Mouse Guard? Like a desert Bedouin who stumbles out of a dust storm and into an oasis, I shall drink deep. Also confirmed for the show are notables such as the aforementioned Mr. Wheaton, Jonathan Coulton, The Protomen and 60,000 of my close, personal friends. I’m really looking forward to this show.

Last month I was trying to re-allocate some space between two partitions on my desktop and ended up losing one of the partitions entirely. Let me tell you, friends, data recovery is a bitch and she kicked me right in the balls.

There was some talk about a new device from Apple, but nothing relevant materialized. That’s really all you need to know.

I’ve been enjoying Steven Erikson’s Malazan series so I decided to delve into Gleen Cook’s Black Company, which apparently served as inspiration. Rest assured that I will inform you of what treasures (or traps!) are discovered.

I picked up Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes for the DS on Tycho’s recommendation and let me tell you that I have not been disappointed. Considered a mix of Puzzle Quest and Critter Crunch, it has so far provided hours of puzzle role playing fun.

Our daughter, now 4-and-a-half months old, continues to enthral both of her parents. We have discovered - too late! - that we are immune to her charms. This is to her benefit, to be sure, but I wonder what it portends for our future. If one day this site should be adorned with flowers, paisleys and perhaps kittens, know that I am lost and that you should save yourselves. You have been warned!

That is all for now, until I next breach the surface to breathe in your salty air and expel what morcels I can offer.

That metaphor fell apart somewhere along the path from my brain to your screen.

I trust you can handle it.

Stay safe. Be awesome.

My name is Aaron, and I am a Dungeon Master.

It wasn’t so long ago that these five words would imply a lot of social baggage and, to some, stigma. If you’ve never played Dungeons & Dragons (or any other of a number of popular role-playing games), or if the name invokes memories of Tom Hanks more than anything else, you would be forgiven for the sudden urge to cluck your tongue disapprovingly.

But that’s not what this post is about.

A Dungeon Master - or, in some circles, a Game Master - is someone who has taken up the challenge to run a game for a group of players. In most RPGs out there, if there is no DM then there is no game. They are the ones who organize and plan the game’s scenarios and act as referee for the other player’s actions.

Everyone has their own reasons for being a DM. Sometimes the role is foisted on them by their fellow players out of necessity, but for many others it is a deliberate and conscious choice.

One of the reasons I chose to be a DM is for role of the story-teller. I love stories. I read them. I listen to them. I think about them all day. I am enamored with the way that stories preserve our past, enrich our present and inspire our future. Being a Dungeon Master allows me to craft new stories and share them with my friends in a way that is both rewarding and interactive.

The role of the DM has been likened to that of a chef preparing a sumptuous banquet, and I believe the analogy is accurate. Every group and every game is different, but it is generally true that a DM needs to prepare ahead of time. The DM must decide what challenges the party will face, the order and difficulty of encounters, as well as the overall pace of the game to come, not unlike one would prepare a menu for a 7 course meal.

A chef works mostly for the benefit of others, but they also take personal pleasure in being able to provide a pleasing experience to their guests. This holds true for dungeon masters as well. Playing Dungeons & Dragons is great but, for those who know, there are few things more gratifying than working over an afternoon, planning out plot twists, combat encounters and Cool Scenes™ and then watching your friends take pleasure in the fruits of your labor.

One of my favorite such moments came when the identity of my recent campaign’s primary antagonist (Vecna) was revealed by means of several clues sprinkled throughout a puzzle handout. I can still vividly remember the pumped fists and chorus of enthusiastic Yes!’s around the table when the penny dropped. Knowing that I was able to provide that kind of entertainment for my friends put me on a high that carried for the rest of the week and still makes me smile to this day.

One of the other great aspects of being a Dungeon Master is that ability to create worlds. Being a dungeon master is a lot like being a writer; our brains are always on and with a nearly-perpetual need to be creatively productive.

Everything around us serves as fuel for our imagination and building worlds gives our brains room to breathe, work and grow. Even if most of the ideas we come up with never make it to paper - much less the table - our gray matter appreciates the work-out and our campaigns are the better for it.

Being a Dungeon Master is not an entirely-selfless task, but it does require a lot of work and commitment. Luckily for us it is also one of the most fun and rewarding hobbies you can have. And don’t forget, your fellow DMs are always willing to help you out.

If you are a new Dungeon Master, or considering giving it a try, here are some sites that offer great advice and insight that you can use to help improve your games: Critical Hits, Newbie DM, Musing of the Chatty DM and of course Wizards.com where you can find all kinds of great articles and pre-made adventures.

In the end it doesn’t really matter if you roll behind the screen or in front of it, or if your campaign spans 3 years or 3 months. As long as you and your players are having fun, you are doing it right.

As a DM, I’ve always wanted a tool that I could use to organize my ideas and help plan for D&D campaigns. Masterplan is the tool for which I’ve been searching these past 10 years. The interface is very functional and almost genius in its simplicity, allowing for Dungeon Masters to quickly and easily visualize the various plot points, encounters and quests they have planned.

You can also plan out dungeon maps, build encounters and treasure parcels.

This incredibly useful tool carries my highest recommendation and I’ve found it invaluable. Did I also mention that it is completely 100% free?

The author is accepting donations through paypal, so please feel free to contribute and help support this awesome work.

Check out the official site for more screenshots and details.

Link

Jonathan Coulton is an artist whose existence had previously been registered on the peripheral of my geek radar (the GEEKDAR 1000), but never submitted to a detailed scan. A nerd troubadour with whom some of you may already be familiar and whose oeuvre includes songs about zombies and the future, I knew him primarily as “that guy who wrote that song for Portal“.

As I absorbed the aftermath of PAX 2009 (from a distance, regrettably) his name appeared once again on my screen in bright, blinking red. The kind of red that says “Incoming missiles and would you please do something about that?”

It was this official proclamation from the office of the Secretary of Geek Affairs, and the musical tribute to said secretary which followed that galvanized my investigation.

I picked up his new live album Best. Concert. Ever. and I was not disappointed. Coulton is a geek’s geek. He is xkcd in musical form. The subjects of this songs vary from robot armies, math, love, Swedish furniture and yes, zombies.

The album is packed full with 20 songs picked from several of his previous albums and recorded live in San Francisco. The Future Soon, Creepy Doll, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Chiron Beta Prime, Re: Your Brains and First Of May all make appearances.

As far as recommendations go, this one comes in at “Why didn’t I discover this sooner?” If you are reading this blog then chances that we share some common interest are greater than zero. Do yourself a favor and check out Jonathan Coulton if you haven’t done so already.

I really dig this trailer for The Beatles: Rock Band directed by Pete Candeland (of Gorillaz videos fame).

Rolling Stone says.

Opening on the cloud-filled skyline of Liverpool, the clip descends into the subterranean clubs where the Beatles first played, then segues into an homage to A Hard Day’s Night and the Fab Four’s arrival in America at the height of Beatlemania. John, Paul, George and Ringo suddenly find themselves in Sgt. Peppers uniforms as the video explores the band’s psychedelic phase, and the quartet ride a giant rhinophant (rhinoceros/elephant) while an army of penguins and other weird creatures march to the tune of “I Am the Walrus.” And it only gets better from there.

The opening cinematic also contains dozens of little Easter Eggs for eagle-eyed Beatles experts. For instance, as the group flies over New York City, a yellow submarine can be seen under a bridge. In the Liverpool segment, concert posters promoting bands like “Carry That Weight” and “Blue Jay Way” can be spotted. As the Beatles load into a car to escape their fans, a lovely meter maid (”Lovely Rita”) is briefly seen in the background. It’s like Where’s Waldo? or the opening sequence of The Simpsons, except insanely cool.

Do yourself a favor and click through to watch the High Def version.

It’s baaaaack!

Wizards of the Coast announced today (at Gencon 2009) that the D&D 4e campaign setting for 2010 would be the incomparable Dark Sun.

Back in the day of 2nd edition, Dark Sun was a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Invoking Mad Max, the setting was dark, gritty and downright deadly. And I loved it.

Straying far from the standard Dungeons & Dragons settings, the world of Athas was a harsh desert. Tyrant sorcerer kings held sway over the few city-states scattered among the dunes. Travel between the cities was extremely risky; the planet itself being as deadly a foe as the nomadic raiders and vicious beasts one was sure to encounter.

I have fond memories of the Dark Sun campaign run by my brother back in high school, so I’m looking forward to seeing what they’ll do with it this time around and how close they will be able to keep to the original theme. Of special interest was the note that they are going back to the firdt box set as far as time line is concerned, which is a good first step.

This is one I’ll be keeping my eye on.

Nevermet Press is a community-driven site that publishes system independent content for use in roleplaying games. Most of their articles present a villain or encounter that DMs and GMs can easily incorporate into whatever game they are currently running.

They’ve recently announced that all of their content will now be licensed under Creative Commons.

I had participated in something similar to this back in aught-seven. A few creative minds got together to build a dungeon that could be used in any system or setting, and we ended up with The Cult of the Sapphire Dream. I really enjoyed the writing exercise and being able to bounce your ideas off others is always a plus.

Publishing their content under Creative Commons is a great move as it encourages others to participate and benefits the gaming community as a whole. When I started building my own campaign setting for D&D4e, I knew from the start that whatever I produced should be available for others to use, expand and re-share.

Everyone benefits, and it’s great to see that Jonathan Jacobs shares this view. You can follow them @NevermetPress.

Apparently there is a 12-mile long mass of organic “goop” floating off the coast of Alaska, and it’s eating everything in its path.

Nobody knows for sure what the gunk is, but Petty Officer 1st Class Terry Hasenauer says the Coast Guard is sure what it is not.

“It’s certainly biological,” Hasenauer said. “It’s definitely not an oil product of any kind. It has no characteristics of an oil, or a hazardous substance, for that matter.

“It’s definitely, by the smell and the makeup of it, it’s some sort of naturally occurring organic or otherwise marine organism.”

…

The stuff is “gooey” and looks dark against the bright white ice floating in the Arctic Ocean, Brower said.

“It’s pitch black when it hits ice and it kind of discolors the ice and hangs off of it,” Brower said. He saw some jellyfish tangled up in the stuff, and someone turned in what was left of a dead goose — just bones and feathers — to the borough’s wildlife department.

Weird.

It reminds me of that old G.I. Joe episode with the colossal pink blob that was devouring everything in the city. If I remember correctly, they managed to stop it by luring it through an orchard of apples, which supposedly contain a lot of acid?

Source, via boingboing

The National Post has posted a page in celebration of the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street. You can mouse-over any of the 101 muppets in the image to get a bit of background information on them, including in which season they first appeared.

How many do you remember?

Source: 101 Muppets.