badmojo74

I finished Paul S. Kemp's book, "Shadowrealm", a few days ago and posted a review on Amazon.com. I'd imagine the review will be posted up there in a day or two. I'll post a copy here as well in case anyone is interested.

I'm too tired right now to say anything particularly eloquent, but this was a book that managed to choke me up a little bit in a few parts. This was one of the few books I've read lately where the ending went exactly where I felt it should logically, yet was still incredibly satisfying.

For those of you keeping track (I don't think I'm even keeping track) the first book I'm reading for 2009 is Simon Scarrow's "Under the Eagle". It's historical/military fiction set in Germany around 42 AD. The book has some problems with "point of view" but I can tell it's going to be a light, fun read. It reminds me a bit of a book about Pullo and Vorenus from the HBO TV series "Rome"; come to thnk of it, that's probably what motivated me to pick it.

Edit: Still cross-posting from Blogger. Unfortunately, I'm still doing it manually.

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Listening to: Ennio Morricone - L'Arena
http://foxytunes.com/artist/ennio+morricone/track/larena

This thought just kind of hit me in one, great sleep-deprived blast.

D&D 4th edition is hitting streets in about a week and I don't care at all. I'm not even sure I want to care.

When 4E was announced I started off skeptical, moved on to slightly hopeful and then slowly back to skeptical as more information was released about the game. Now I don't even bother to read the previews that are being released.

It's odd to think about how much I've enjoyed the various editions of D&D over the years and yet I don't really have any feelings at all about the new incarnation. Maybe something will spark my interest in it or my gaming group will try it and it'll grow on me.

People seem to like it and it certainly looks like 4th Ed. is going to be a huge hit so I suspect I'm in the minority among D&D geeks everywhere.

Oh, well. Maybe there's a new edition of Boggle coming out that I can get myself excited about.

Someone on the Giants in the Playground forums posted a link to scans of the pregenerated characters from the first 4th Edition D&D adventure.

The paladin has a power called "Paladin's Judgement" that basically helps to heal an ally by attacking a foe.  This has bothered me since the beginning of the 4E rules talk.   It's probably just my own mental block, but I just can't wrap my brain around the fact that beating someone like they owe me money is going to heal one of my allies.

I realize that it's a fantasy game and this is a divine power, but I'm still looking for a compelling "why" for this.  Unfortunately, the flavor text for this power doesn't add anything in the way of explanation.

That sounds dirty, doesn't it?

Actually, I'm talking about the grating sense of entitlement that's sprung up on EnWorld with the announcement of the GSL for D&D.  I don't know why I even bother reading the Open Gaming forums on EnWorld and it makes even less sense to respond to some of the things posted there.

The new licensing, it turns out, is a much better deal than I thought we were going to get.  A week ago, I wouldn't have been surprised to see Wizards release 4th Edition as a completely closed game or one with a license granted to only a select few publishers for a hefty fee.

Instead of being pleasantly surprised at the new license being nearly as open as the OGL, it seems that a vocal minority have already started whining about the closed license and trying to figure out ways around it.  It's incredibly annoying (to me, at least) and reminds me of Jim Ward and Fast Forward Entertainments various "fuck you" moments with the OGL and Wizards many years back.

Luckily, most of the people whining about Wizards not letting them to play with all of the cool toys probably won't actually be involved in publishing anything.  Still, something about this particular brand of ass-hattery just rubs me the wrong way.  It's times like this that I feel bad for people like Linae Foster and Scott Rouse, despite them having gamer dream jobs.