Archive for category Nerd Alert
Comic-Con 2010 talks to Comic-Con 2003
Posted by Rockjaw in Nerd Alert, Personal on July 25th, 2010
I’m in San Diego airport, a little too early for my (mercifully brief) flight back to San Francisco, and I should be writing. I have things to write. But my brain feels half-functional. And this blog needs a post, occasionally.
Comic-Con 2010. Woah.
I last hit Comic-Con in 2003, and every time this week that I said “I was last here seven years ago” I felt like it was a huge gulf. Not much has actually changed about Comic-Con in that time, to be honest; it’s still huge, and the same sort of stuff is still being shown. On the other hand, an awful lot has changed about me in seven years. I started to wonder what 2003 me would think of 2010 me. Y’know, if they could have a conversation. Considering the amount of sci-fi entertainment media on display at Comic-Con, and the amount of geeks willing crazy stuff into existence during the show, it doesn’t seem impossible.
What’s up, 2010? Read the rest of this entry »
Bristol Comic Expo 2009… the one without a job
Posted by Rockjaw in Events, Nerd Alert, Personal on May 12th, 2009
This weekend was another Bristol Comic Expo – my fourth, not my fifth, as I got confused about before.
I’ve gone every year since 2005, except 2006 (when it clashed with a trip to LA for E3), but every year I attended to officially represent NCsoft. What started in 2005 as a couple of us stuck in a corner trying to flog City of Heroes (without actually selling it) culminated last year in a big ol’ stand with practically an artistic production-line to handle the pencilling, inking, scanning, colouring and printing of player sketches. Without a doubt, in terms of our professional ambitions, Bristol 2008 was our high point. As a fun weekend away for me personally though, this year is the hands-down winner.
Despite that, we definitely fulfilled our primary purpose: to help out Andrew Wildman once more with Draw the World Together. Mat and I couldn’t be happier to help, but as always, there were a lot of people who made things happen.
First and foremost was Mike Allwood, Expo organiser, who gave us the space and time we needed to sketch in. It was no easy feat, as with this year’s Expo being squeezed into the Ramada Hotel (with overspill at the nearby Mercure) it was hard to swing a cat, let alone get half-a-dozen artists to sketch in one room. Mike also ensured that our most generous supporters could get into the Expo, even after tickets were officially sold out. As always whenever I saw Mike over the weekend he was a picture of relaxed calm amongst the chaos, and went above and beyond to help things run smoothly.
DTWT doesn’t really work without Andrew Wildman at the centre of things though – even though he’d say he’s not the most important part! As always Andrew pulled strings, stroked egos and generally hustled to get a great group of artists to sit and sketch. He’s a diamond geezer, as anyone will attest to, and of course he sketched more than a few things on the day too.
Mat and I? We just turned up, really. So let’s kick back with the traditional, chronological, rambling retelling….
Read the rest of this entry »
Old is new again: a guide to ‘retro-clone’ roleplaying games
Posted by Rockjaw in Gamey, Nerd Alert, Roleplaying on May 8th, 2009
About as scrappy and loosely organised as the original roleplaying hobby, retro-clone roleplaying games (or ‘simulacrum games‘ to some) are spreading across the web, gradually gaining converts to their cause: a return to fast-paced, imagination-led roleplaying.
Most of them have a lot in common:
- They’re inspired by the early editions of Dungeons & Dragons.
- They use Wizards of the Coast’s System Reference Document, under the terms of the Open Gaming License.
- Best of all, most of them are free to download, with no strings attached.
Just add dice and you’re ready to play.
Why play a ‘retro-clone’?
You might ask why anyone would want to play these games, when Dungeons & Dragons now has a 4th Edition, and thirty-plus years of recognition behind it.
Well, the reasons are as varied as the players, but for most, it seems to be simple: they want to get back to something that they feel has been lost. Away from enormous rulebooks and mountains of supplements, they want their imagination to take hold again, to run things fast and loose, and to experience roleplaying as they remember it.
While you can easily argue that roleplaying games don’t ‘force’ you to play any particular way, it’s also hard to argue with history and tradition. So if you’re fed up with people throwing rules in your face, or you just fancy getting back to the ‘old school’ way of playing without hunting down out-of-print rulebooks, there’s probably something for you here.
Secret origins
While there may be some people who’ll come to these games completely fresh, perhaps even as their first roleplaying experience, I think it’s more likely that they’ll be introduced to them by someone else – someone who played the original games that inspired these clones.
As one of those people myself, when I first heard about these games, I wanted to know which retro-clone was inspired by which original game. I figured that would help me gauge whether I was interested in using them, based on my memories of the original game, and frankly, I was also just curious.
Unfortunately, most of the retro-clones don’t explicitly state their ‘inspirations’ – basically because of the legal terms of the Open Gaming License, which do not allow them to position themselves as direct replacements for those Other Trademarked Games which usually feature an ampersand in their title. As a result, I had to do some research to determine exactly which game, and which edition of which game, inspired what. (Then I made some pretty pictures to make it really clear.)
As I haven’t agreed to any binding legal license, however, I don’t have to be coy as to what inspired what – even though it’s just that, inspiration. I want to be clear that while most retro-clones use the System Reference Document and will therefore have very familiar mechanics and systems, that does not mean they’re direct copies of Dungeons & Dragons. Instead, they’re inspired and derived from it, and that means all of them will be slightly different from the original… even while they feel very much the same. In other words, my use of an ‘equals’ sign in the pictures below is meant to be interpreted very loosely.
Bristol Comic Expo ’09: see ya there?
Posted by Rockjaw in Events, Nerd Alert, Personal on May 4th, 2009
As I mentioned in passing before, my partner in crime Mat and I will be returning to Bristol Comic Expo this coming weekend. It’ll be my fifth expo, but it’s the first time I’ll be there under my own aegis – in other words, no tasty expenses-paid meals for me.
However, one thing will be the same: Mat and I will be trying to help raise some charity cash for Draw The World Together, although we’ll be doing the easy bit (Taking your donations and keeping people fed and watered) while our amazing volunteer comic artists do the hard stuff, ie drawing your characters.
On top of the sketching – we also have some fantastic original art that we’ll probably be auctioning, in some ad hoc fashion, over the weekend. If we don’t get rid of something at the show, we’ll auction it online afterwards.
Unfortunately as we left the decision to attend so late this year – blame me for that, with imminent visa interviews putting everything on hold – by the time we said we were going, tickets were pretty much sold out. (The Expo’s moved – for one year only, I understand, to the much smaller hotel nearby, so capacity is limited.) I apologise to all of you who are anxious to get sketches – but fingers crossed, Andrew Wildman will return to Bristol (and other shows) to do the same thing.
As well as trying to raise some cash for DTWT I’m also going to the Expo, well, to see the Expo! I was there in 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2008 and never got to sit on any panels, or spend much time wandering around the hall. So this time, at last, I’ll get the chance.
Last but not least… this will be my last show in the UK for a while. I’m hoping to return later this year (Stay tuned for what and when….) but for a while, at least, this will be my last chance to meet up with You People. You know who you are…. and you know the drill! It should be a lot of fun.
Here’s how this weekend’s going to break down, then…
You said what?