I was wrong

here’s another test.

a second test

of the ping thing

Testing this ping thing

A d20 Setting Hack

I just put the finishing touches on a short D&D setting hack that I’ve been working on for the past week. I play D&D biweekly with some local friends, and we have a deal where we swap off between two GMs (and campaigns) every three sessions or so. We’ve just shifted around to a different pair with Nelson running his first campaign with us. That started me thinking about planning ahead so I can take over for Joe when his campaign ends, assuming Mark doesn’t have something to run. I’ve had an idea for how to kick off the campaign for a little while now, but not much else.

So I started thinking about overall plot. Now, I suck at the looking-three-moves-ahead thing, and developing a plot is my Achilles heel. So, when the barest thought struck me for a hack to the standard setting, I dove into it with gusto. See, that sort of stuff I can obsess over. It’s pretty much all I’ve been thinking about for days. I thought, why not explore a world where magic comes easily to everyone? Rather than having your standard spellcasting classes, anyone can learn to cast spells through feats. I ran with it from there, and now I have three new classes (which are probably overpowered, because, hey, it’s me, right?) and a nifty way of handling spells and psionics.

So, now I have to get back to considering plot and long-term structure. Which never survives the first encounter with the players anyway.

Once we start playing around with these rules and new classes and see how they balance out, I plan to share them with the world at large.

Slàinte,

Q

Zombie Planet has a new forum

So, did I mention Zombie Planet, the most excellent game and comic shop in Albany, has a new forum? Well, they do. Now you can register to keep up with all things ZP. Want to discuss your latest gripe about game X? Want to gush over game Y? Or are you simply looking for someone, anyone, to play with you? Well, stop in at the forum and see what’s there.

http://zombie-planet.proboards.com/index.cgi?

Q

You are the Halo

So, I’ve mentioned Rebecca Mayes here before. She writes songs about video games. They aren’t exactly reviews or critiques, more like songs inspired by them, though they often have critical parts to them. The music is often ethereal and evocative, and always beautiful. Below is her offering for Halo 2. Usually, she pens her own lyrics, but these are the words of Marianne Williamson, as used by Nelson Mandela for his inauguration speech. Beautiful words on their own, but Rebecca manages to make them even more special. Listen.

Q

Rapier versus Short Sword

For my gaming friends: ever find yourself thinking that the rapier rules seem silly in D&D when stacked against a standard sword? You’re not alone. But consider the following video.

So, it would seem the rules for rapiers are not so bad. In fact, they may be underpowered.

Q

Some More of Liz’s Sketches

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

Liz has been working hard on art for me between bouts of getting married, holding down a full-time job, moving and all that piddly stuff. So, I thought I’d share some of her initial sketches.

Trillids:

The Trillids are one of the most interesting of the galaxy’s species, being the only known intelligent species to have three sexes. In fact, all complex life on their home-world Shemarbruc is trisexual. All three sexes — alpha, beta, and gamma — are rather short, with hairless, slightly moist, smooth grey-green skin, reminiscent of frog skin…The most obvious deviance from the humanoid form is in the facial features, set on a slightly bulbous cranium. While the eyes are quite human, with surprisingly similar coloring of the irises, they are large and deep-set, beneath strong brow ridges on a steeply sloped forehead. The nose is broad, and flattened, with fine crenations around the perimeter of the nares, while the lower half of the face protrudes slightly forward in an almost canine fashion. Trillids also lack external ear structures, having only large tympanic membranes beside their eyes, also protected somewhat by bony annular protrusions connected to the brow ridge.

These are initial sketches, and the final people look a little bit different. You’ll have to wait for the book to see what I mean.

Loramyps:

The Loramyps are a semi-sessile, sapient plant species, resembling large, thick-boled bushes. Their roughly hemispherical canopies are thick with large, palmately compound purple-black leaves. The leaves are purple-black with a rough matte surface. In the spring they sport a multitude of huge creamy-white flowers resembling magnolia blossoms. They top out at around ten feet tall with ten foot diameter canopies and four foot diameter trunks. Their smooth, umber-colored trunks are bare up to about five feet from the ground where a sparse ring of flexible, whip-like, prehensile branches begins. These appendages, which can reach sometimes up to ten feet, are tipped with frilly yellow-green foliage, resembling down. When not in use, they are kept wrapped around the trunk.

  We’re still dialoguing on these, but the Loramyp in the atrium is just about perfect, no?

Durgen:

The Durgens are a protean metal-based life form. They generally mass about 3.5 times an average male human, but being made of a denser material, they are smaller than humans. They average around 4’ 6’’ tall and weigh around 656 pounds. These beings generally take the form of whomever they are dealing with at the moment. If faced with a group of multiple species, they mimic the dominant one in the party…The Durgens have an unusual societal structure and might be better referred to as The Durgen, singular. They are a communal species, in the strictest sense of the word. Individual Durgens are but extensions of The Durgen, an enormous organism existing on their home-world, Hydoorgyr. From time to time, The Durgen buds off and sends its new Gemma out to accomplish some mission — help find food, rendezvous with visitors, explore new star systems, et cetera.

 

As always, Liz is a pleasure to work with. Y’all should definitely hire her to do something for you.

Slaintè,

Q

Products Update

Note: Cross posted from Hudspeth Games Blog.

Permalink

Production is steadily advancing on the Star Lost manuscript. Liz Radtke is steadily producing high quality art for the section on Aliens, and I’m getting the text laid out all pretty like. Here’s a sample spread from the Adventuring chapter. Click to embiggen.

I’m also working on a follow-up to the smash hit Morgenstern’s Spellbook, entitled Resnet’s Spellbook. Resnet (who you may remember as having a spell named for her in Morgenstern’s Spellbook) is the younger sister of Rasmus Morgenstern. Though following the path of the bard, Resnet also shares her brother’s penchant for collecting new spells. She tends to be more selective of practical spells than Rasmus, though, so this volume is decidedly less quirky than the previous. Once completed, it will be sold both individually and as a bundle with Morgenstern’s Spellbook (called the Morgenstern Family Album).

In other news, I am completing formalities to use Lightning Source as the POD printer for Hudspeth Games. I was introduced to Lightning Source through DriveThruRPG as their POD supplier. They do fairly good work, and I’m familiar with their policies, so I thought I’d give a go at cutting out the middle man. If things go right, you should see print versions of Hudspeth Games’ works at such fine retail outlets as Amazon.com.

Finally, my birthday is coming up, and to celebrate all Hudspeth Games titles at DriveThruRPG will be on sale (50% off) from 9/29/10 through 10/1/10. Sweet deals!

Slaintè,

Q

Marian Call

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

Here’s a track by an indie artist Wil Wheaton mentioned on his blog. Listen to it all the way, and be surprised.

Q

Lenovo U1 Hybrid

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

Okay, I’ve shown you the ICD tablet competitors, and they’re really cool gadgets. But this one. This one I want.

Lenovo is close to releasing the U1 Hybrid — a netbook that snaps apart and becomes a tablet. Check it.

Here’s a link to an engadget review. This guy looks sweet. It’s been delayed a bit because they’ve decided not to use the Skylight OS demoed here, but to switch to Android, since it’s robust and they’ve had good luck with it on some of their smart phones. (Says something about an OS when you dump your own for it.)

The reason H and I have been down on the iPad and its ilk is that, while it is more flexible than an eReader, it is still very limited because of its format. The U1 looks like it will provide the best of the netbook and tablet worlds. Perhaps by year’s end it will have been out long enough for some decent reviews. I’ve wanted a color, large screen alternative to my Nook for reading large-format PDF eBooks that don’t reflow well to the smaller Nook screen. I’ve contemplated a netbook, which would allow me to write or do email as well as read PDFs and track my D&D characters live at the game (yes, I am that geeky). I hope the U1 is all it’s cracked up to be.

ICD’s Ultra tablet

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

A while back I posted about ICD’s Vega tablet as a serious competitor of the iPad. Here’s a look at a similar, but smaller device that may be available in the US sooner. Dunno. Looks like it’ll be tied to Verizon Wireless rather than T-Mobile, as the Vega is. Either way, it’s a sweet bit of tech! Here’s a SlashGear write-up on the Ultra.

A confusion of cephalopods

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

Merriam Webster’s online dictionary recently started showing little vlogs about etymology and grammar called Ask the Editor. They are usually witty, and always informative. Here’s one of my favorites…

http://www.merriam-webster.com/video/0015-octopus.htm

(For some reason, they don’t allow embedding.)

RUSH!!!!!!!

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

I get to see RUSH in concert at SPAC Friday night with Heather…for free!!!!

Heather managed to snag some free tickets from the GE Volunteers organization. W00t!

Don’t know yet where we are seated, but who cares? It’s RUSH and it’s FREE.

Q

Xmas in July Sale at DriveThruRPG

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

There's a sale comin' on! Friday the 23rd - Monday the 26th DriveThru will be having a 25% off sale, and Hudspeth Games’ products will be included. So, if you’ve been putting off buying some stuff, the time is coming this weekend!

Never forget your roots…

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

…says Wil Wheaton about his design for a new T-shirt available through J!nx.com.

"Never forget your roots.
In this modern era of Dwarven Forge terrain, full-color dungeon tiles, power cards and pre-painted minis, let's remember where we started: sitting on the floor, surrounded by books and dice, building dungeons with nothing more than a pencil, some graph paper, and our imagination."
-Wil

The shirt boasts a great design by Miguel Rojas.

I want one.

The Hole Weekend

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

I had a great weekend this past. Saturday was a hike up to the Snow Hole near Petersburgh in the Taconic mountain range with Joe Levy and Karen Traite. I’ll be eternally grateful to them for getting me off my butt and back on a hike. It’s been nearly a decade since I’ve gone on a nature walk like Heather and I used to do, with camera in hand.

The Snow Hole hike was a good one, too. Perfect for an older naturist who hasn’t been on a real hike in too long. There were steep parts, but they only lasted long enough to make you think, “I may have to sit down in a second.” Just as I would get desperate, I’d look up and the trail would level out a few strides ahead. It would stay level long enough for me to catch my breath, then dip down or climb up again for a short period. While I was tired when we came back to the trailhead four hours after starting, I wasn’t about to fall over.

Along the way we spotted a red-tailed hawk soaring in the thermals over a small blue-berry infested meadow (which isn’t as good as it sounds when the berries are only 2mm unripe bumps). I tried to get some good pics of the hawk, but he was too fast, and all I could get were silhouettes.

The Snow Hole itself was only slightly disappointing. A deep crevice in the rocks, the Hole stays cool year round because of the thermal mass of the rocks that form its walls and the abundant shade of the trees above. Sometimes you can even find snow in early summer. We did not, and that was the only disappointing part. The hole was colder than my basement, a good 50° if I had to guess, and very damp. There was gorgeous moss everywhere, not to mention graffiti from the late 1800’s. A couple of birds flitted around, and the bugs did not. After about ten minutes down there, Karen was even getting cold.

So, we climbed out of the hole (no mean feat) and had lunch after which Karen found a geocache near her impromptu toilet. We had quick read and signed our names, lamenting the lack of snow. Then we headed back down to the car.

Here’s an album* of pictures from the walk:

Have a great week!

Q

---

*All photos not showing people are released under a Creative Commons 3.0 noncommercial, share-alike, attribution license. Photos of people are ©2010 Quentin Hudspeth and may not be distributed or used without my written permission.

Vega to compete with iPad

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

Here's a new product that might give the iPad a run for its money. The Vega, from Innovated Converged Devices (out of Seattle), runs Android 2.0 on an NVIDIA Tegra processor. With a built in 32 GB SD hard drive, support for an expansion SD hard drive, and a firkin' huge 15 inch screen size (11 and 7 inch sizes will be available), not to mention freedom from the iPrison of Apple apps, the Vega could be the go to multimedia pad. And, come on, that docking station is just cute! Originally announced in late 2009 for a mid-2010 release, currently it appears only available in the UK with T-Mobile 3G connectivity.

The video below is lousy, but it showcases some interesting feature of the prototypical Vega. Check out the product page at ICD.

Kalen Concept Art

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

I've been working with artist Liz Radtke again on concepts for the Kalens of Star Lost. Can I just say that she so frickin rocks! Her first attempt (the golden retriever) was too dog-like and too butch. That stemmed from my inadequate description. The next iteration (the other four pix) was awesome. I don’t claim that she reached into my brain and pulled out the perfect image. I can’t because I didn’t have a fully formed image in mind, just pieces of what I knew should be there:

Kalens are a tall, svelte, furry species, most closely related to terrestrial marsupials. They are, however, asexual and androgynous…Their facial features offer an interesting mix of familiar terrestrial animals. Their ears are tall, pointy, and tufted, like a lynx‘s. Their eyes are large like those of a lemur. And their snouts are slightly extended, but short, like an affenpinscher‘s, with a wide mouth full of small, sharp front teeth, and a surfeit of wide molars in back…

From that, and a short critique on the first draft, she has managed to create a fully formed creature that looks like the best stuff you see in the special features menu of a scifi movie. Sweet!

View Full Album

Caltrops Gets Reviewed

Note: Cross posted from Quentin Hudspeth's Journal.

Permalink

Remember Caltrops, that first supplement from Hudspeth Games? Well, it just got its firs review over at DriveThruRPG. Here’s what NB Neil had to say:

This is a great little supplement for GMs looking to add some flavor for characters, especially the betting kind. It's a short read with two simple dice games that NPCs may be playing or more interestingly that your players can play to pass the time.
Some of my players aren't as into the roleplaying portions of the game and end up heading off to the local tavern for some gambling. Though I'm sure I could have come up with some games for them to play rather than a simple skill challenge, this supplement gives two good examples with the background that goblins often play these with marked caltrops. A little fluff and a little crunch. My kind of supplement. Break out the d4's and ante up.
Rating: [4 of 5 Stars!]