Woody's Place

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Man Cave Update

It's been a long time since my original man cave post, and we've acquired some new stuff and done some redecorating, so I figured I'd take some snaps and try posting some panoramic photos.

Although there are a few artifacts and jaggies if you look closely, I think the panoramas came out decent, and they give you a pretty good feel for the space. 

Reasons Why I Wasn't Blogging This Weekend

#1 This was my first weekend off in... well, since January I think.  Had to do some of the family / home stuff that regular folks enjoy.

#2 I had some friends over that I hadn't seen in awhile.  We hung out and talked.  Real face to face social interaction... you remember that don't you?

#3 I was reading a good book.

#4 I was assembling some new bookshelves and organizing the contents:

Now... what was this shit I heard about a new immigration bill?  Obama's not content with screwing up the economy and our healthcare, so now he's going to trash our sovereignty?

Dungeons & Dragons On A Microsoft Surface Table

Geez... as if I hadn't already sunk enough money into my D&D collection, now I've got to by a $4,000 interactive coffee table?

Too bad I just bought a new PC... this will have to wait till 2011 I guess.  (-;

One Time, At D&D Camp...

Wow.  There was a summer camp for Dungeons & Dragons?  I'm so jealous.

Shippensburg Adventure Game Camp ran in the summers of 1981 through 1985. There were two one-week sessions, each Sunday evening through Friday afternoon. I found out about it because the teacher we had convinced to sponsor the school D&D group got a flier for it when it was first organized.

Campers were divided into different gaming groups at the beginning of the week, with councilors doubling as DMs. There were morning lectures (seriously) with gaming in the afternoon. All the groups played through the same adventure, written specifically for the camp. It wasn’t an actual tournament, but each group pretty much tried to get as far as possible before the end of the week — a slightly rigged process as I found out once I became a councilor.

Sounds like something I'd have enjoyed.  The closest I got was being dropped off at the local university for a few hours during their annual gaming convention.

Click through to read the rest.

Jones Soda Releases Dungeons & Dragons Themed Soft Drinks

I thought Jones Soda was pretty cool when they introduced D'Peach Mode way back when, but now they've really REALLY got my attention with their new D&D themed introduction. 

The limited edtion Dungeons & Dragons Spellcasting Soda collection features the following adventurous flavors:

• Potion Of Healing
• Sneak Attack
• Bigby's Crushing Thirst Destroyer
• Dwarven Draught
• Illithid Brain Juice
• Eldritch Blast

That is all kinds of awesome. 

I just ordered a 12 pack.  That way I'll be able to try out each flavor, and still have one of each to line up on the wall in my man cave.  

The Big Four O

Today is my birthday.  I think I'm officially middle aged now.  40 is middle aged right, and 50 is over the hill?  Maybe I've got them reversed.  Anyways I'm not a young sprite anymore.  Even my chest hair is going gray.

I had a nice evening Sunday.  Mom stopped over and had dinner with me and the girls.  We had some wonderful lebanese food from a place around the corner.  How lucky is my Mom to get HER favorite food, gyros, on MY birthday?  I should have made her eat some Mexican instead, but I guess I'm getting mellow in my old age...

Got a few phone calls.  Got some funny cards.  Some of the cards contained moolah, so I went on Ebay tonight and bought 15 or 20 of the older Forgotten Realms paperbacks that were still missing from my collection.  Thanks y'all!  I've almost got the whole collection complete now.

My mother also gave me this fabulous gift: 

It's an autographed copy of the Depeche Mode's "Violator" album cover!!!  Wow!  I was blown away. That's going to look frickin' awesome hanging up in the man cave!

To cap the evening off, my thirteen year old daughter joined me in the home theater to watch Depeche Mode's concert video "Devotional" with the surround sound cranked way up.  It was almost like being right in the audience.  It is incredibly cool that my kid enjoys my favorite band and we can share that kind of stuff together.

Anyways, forty's not so bad I guess.  I mean, there IS only one alternative to getting older right?

Book Review: Whisper Of Waves

I enjoy reading science fiction novels, especially swords & sorcery tales set in the Forgotten Realms setting for the Dungeons & Dragons game.  I often read them at night, when I have trouble sleeping.  This helps me to pass the time without just laying there tossing and turning.  Sometimes it even helps me forget whatever was bothering me so I can fall back to sleep.

So far I have collected 189 Forgotten Realms paperbacks... Yes, one hundred and eighty nine novels set in this one fantasy world.  That depth is part of the allure for me.  Between the game books, novels and video games, there’s been so much detail added to the Realms that no other fictional setting comes closer to being a real place you could almost step into.  For instance, if a writer mentions a wizard wearing a red robe and sporting a tattooed pate, I know he’s from the nation of Thay, where that land lies in relation to where the story is occurring, what language they speak there, their form of government, the names of several of the Zulkirs and Tharchions, their primary exports, the wizard’s likely motivation for doing whatever he’s doing in the story and so on.  As I said, the Forgotten Realms is almost like a real place once you’ve gotten into it.

“Whisper Of Waves” is book one of The Watercourse Trilogy by Phillip Athans, which I must admit, has been passed over many times while I perused the shelves at my local bookstore.  Now that I’m running out of Realms books to collect it finally made the cut, and having just finished and thoroughly enjoyed it, I’m left wondering why I didn’t buy these books years ago.

I suppose it’s partly because the story seems a little unconventional. I mean, how many swords & sorcery tales feature an architect and a senator as the primary characters?  Also the cover art is very different from the rest of the Realms books.  Not bad, just very stylized and not what you’d expect, almost retro.  I guess it was the uniqueness of this series that caused me to skip over it in favor of titles that I was more certain I would enjoy, and ironically it’s that same uniqueness that ended up making this book one of my favorites.

Right from the acknowledgements at the front of the book you can tell you're in for something different.

Sources for this novel include various works of the novelist and philosopher Ayn Rand, including “The Fountainhead” and “The Virtue Of Selfishness”.

Marek Rymüt’s speech to the tradesmen was paraphrased from Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, Collected Works, 47 Volumes (London, 1975).

Most of these titles start out with a little thank you to mom, a spouse or the editor, not a hat tip to an icon of conservative political philosophy and the founder of communism!

“Whisper Of Waves” features a really interesting cast of characters all moving along in their own little orbits, intersecting now and then, but only really coming together towards the end of the book.  The pace is fast enough to keep things moving, even though as book one in a trilogy there’s a lot of exposition to be expected.

I found this book to be really well written, with Athans giving us rich descriptions and characters with real depth and emotion.  For example, here is a short passage featuring the protagonist Ivar Devorast and his old master, Fharaud, whose been long disabled and is lying on his death bed.

He tried to breathe in, but couldn’t.  Devorast saw his distress and leaned closer, concern plain on his face.  Concern, but not fear.

“Fharaud?” he said.  “Can you¬―¬?”

Devorast stopped talking and their eyes met¬―truly met, in a moment of understanding.  Fharaud felt Devorast’s hand in his and marveled at that simple sensation.  He could feel.  He couldn’t breathe, but he could feel.

His heart skipped a beat¬―was that panic?

If it was, it was as fleeting as half a heartbeat, then Fharaud was at peace.

“Goodbye, my friend,” Devorast whispered.

Fharaud wished he could say goodbye too, but he couldn’t, and Devorast would understand.  He tried to keep his eyes open as long as he could, but in due course the room went dark.

The last connection with the material world that Fharaud experienced was Devorast’s last whisper, “Rest well, Fharaud.  Rest well.”

And he was gone.

That was one of the most vivid death scenes that I’ve ever read, and there are little gems like this scattered all throughout the story.  I hope book two and three are as good as this one.

I would heartily recommend “Whisper Of Waves” to anyone interested in the fantasy genre, and it’s truly a must read for any Forgotten Realms fan. 

Well now... it's 6:45 AM Sunday morning and I just finished reading a book and posting a review of it to my blog.  Shall I try to go back to sleep, or dive right into book two of the series?  Hmm...  

Free Book Download: Paul Kemp's "Twilight Falling"

Wizards Of The Coast has, for a limited time, made book one of Paul Kemp's Erevis Cale trilogy of Forgotten Realms novels available for free download!

The shadows grow long on the mean streets of Selgaunt. The sun sets on one man’s service to Sembia’s merchant lords. The day’s end finds Erevis Cale serving a new master, one who is beyond the petty accumulation of wealth.

After all, what is gold to one who trades in souls?

If you enjoy a good fantasy novel, or would like to give them a try, click over and give this one a read.  Kemp is, in my opinion, one of the best authors writing for the Forgotten Realms.

Free D&D?

Wizards Of The Coast is promoting the launch of the 4th Edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game with a free downloadable kit called D&D Test Drive that contains everything you need to give D&D roleplaying a try.  Well, everything except the munchies, some friends, and the dice... those things don't PDF too well, so you're on your own.

So round up some buddies, a bag of Cheetos, a case of Mountain Dew, and that old bag of dice.  It's time to get your game on!

Once Upon A Time...

...while two families vacationed together, a boy named Chris introduced another boy named Woody to a magical world called Dungeons & Dragons, inadvertently birthing a life long obsession.

That's me on the left, and Chris Koon on the right, and what I believe to be a Dungeons & Dragons book or magazine on the table in front if us.  "Keep On The Borderlands" perhaps?

I still have my first character sheet and all the tattered copies of Dragon magazine that he gave me... although my collection has grown a bit since then.

Good times. 

P.S. Why do ten year old boys always make goofy faces when they get their picture taken?

Book Review: Downshadow

Erik Scott DeBie’s Downshadow is part three in a series of novels presenting Waterdeep, the Forgotten Realms campaign setting’s most legendary city, in its new fourth edition incarnation.  Overall I’d have to say this was one of the best Realms novels I’ve ever read, and since I have almost every one every published that's really saying something.

The story here centers on Shadowbane, a paladin patrolling the subterranean neighborhood of Downshadow, trying to make the Realms a better place one dead evil doer at a time, like a medieval Batman.  Eventually, when he comes up against an unstoppable foe in a dwarven monk named Rath.  Shadowbane is then forced to choose between doing what’s right and getting revenge, and anybody familiar with Dungeons & Dragons knows this is an untenable situation for a Paladin.

The pacing in Downshadow is just fast enough to keep you moving, but slows down enough at times to let you learn about the characters backgrounds and motivations.  Many of the cast here are women, and very attractive lusty women (well most of them are women, all of them are females at least).  Each tries to woo Shadowbane or his alter ego at some point throughout the book, which makes for some very funny moments.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say this book is a bit naughty for a swords and sorcery novel.  Nothing graphic, but the sexual innuendos and imagery are pretty much non-stop throughout the book.  I got a kick out of it, but this may well be the last book I recommend to my thirteen year old daughter who is starting to show an interest in Daddy’s Forgotten Realms book collection.

Downshadow is a great read, and I expect it will also make a great re-read… several times at least.  I eagerly await Mr. DeBie’s next Forgotten Realms novel. 

UPDATE: You can read a sample chapter of Downshadow at Wizards Of The Coast.

D&D Co-Creator Dave Arneson Passes Away

From Wizards of The Coast:

Wizards of the Coast was deeply saddened to learn that Dave Arneson passed away on Tuesday evening, April 7th, after waging one final battle against cancer.  Arneson was co-creator of the original Dungeons & Dragons game.  He developed many of the fundamental ideas of role-playing; that each player controls just one hero, that heroes gain power through adventures, and that personality is as important as combat prowess.  His Blackmoor was the first-ever role playing campaign and the prototype for all RPG campaigns since.  All of us in this industry and hobby owe a great debt of thanks to Dave Arneson and his groundbreaking Blackmoor game.  We extend our deepest condolences to his family and friends.

Bummer.  First Gygax and now Arneson. 

Book Review: Spellfire

Somehow, while amassing my huge collection of Forgotten Realms paperbacks, I skipped over Ed Greenwood's Shandril's Saga trilogy.  I don't know how I let that happen!  It's like reading Lord Of The Rings without knowing about The Hobbit.  Anyways, I've rectified my error and all of "Ed of the Green Wood's" novels are now accounted for in my Realms collection.

Spellfire, Greenwood's first novel, was published in 1988 and was intended to showcase the new Forgotten Realms game setting for TSR.  He deliberately set out to smash fantasy stereotypes, and the book is the better for it.  A female protagonist, a male love interest sometimes in need of rescue, and good guys losing once in awhile.  Ed doesn't gloss over the mundane stuff either, the characters eat, sleep and even relieve themselves, just like real people would.  It all adds to the richness of the story.

As the creator of The Forgotten Realms setting, Ed is uniquely suited to write a rich and detailed story, and he does not disappoint here.  Each chapter begins with a quotation from a fictional Realms notable, and every other paragraph seems to include some new bit of lore or description of some facet of his world.  Greenwood makes good use of language throughout, including many unique and plausible souding medeival terms and descriptions.

This author doesn't dwell overmuch on the details of the battles, instead he seems to focus on the character's actions and interactions with each other during the course of the fighting.  You won't find many Salvatore style, detailed blow by blow descriptions of swordfights here.  In my opinion, this is fine trade off.  Less tense, but more fleshed out.

The book gets off to a great start introducing us to the main character, Shandril Shessair, a kitchen lass at a tavern in a sleepy corner of the Dales.  We get to see her innocence and her building frustration with the Cindarella-esque non-stop toil and drudgery that keeps her from seeing the wider world.  Shandril leaps a the chance to run away and join a band of adventurers as a thief in training and eventually discovers she has the gift of Spellfire, a legendary magical ability that makes her the target of nefarious groups that strive to posess or eliminate her.  The middle of the book gets a little slow at times, but Greenwood provides so much detail and his characters are so varied that you don't mind just hanging around in Shadowdale for awhile as Shessair explores her talents with Elminster and decides where her path should lead.  The climax goes by almost too quickly, but it serves it's purpose to conclude this part of Shandril's tale with a bit of a flourish.

Overall I really enjoyed this one, and I'm starting the second book now.  This trilogy is a must have for any Realms fan.

Homemade Legend Of Drizzt Movie

It's not Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings, but for homemade it is amazingly well done.

The acting is a little amateurish, but then again they ARE amateurs.  Nice job on the Drizzt makeup and costume, very faithful to Lockwood's spot on illustrations.  All the costumes are really good actually.  Pretty decent swordplay, again for amateurs.  The Wulfgar character's wig looks a little too pretty, and he needs to be more of a Arnold Schwartzeneger / Conan type physique to play the part in my opinion.  Catti Brie works... I'd do it.  Bruenor may be a little over the top in his dwarfishness here, but it's fantasy so whatevs.  All in all I'm very impressed.

I've been thinking that the Drizzt series would make a great movie franchise for years now.  Salvatore's books have regularly appeared on the New York Times bestseller's chart and his books have sold over 10,000,000 copies!  Not to mention the huge Forgotten Relams RPG fanbase and the hugely popular Baldur's Gate and Demon Stone video game series.  There is an audience out there just waiting for something like this, somebody just has to make a cool movie out of it.  Here's hoping a producer with a few million bucks to spend sees this and gets inspired.

Fantasy Artist Todd Lockwood

Illustrator Todd Lockwood is today's premier fantasy artist.  He is responsible for the covers of a slew of recent best selling novels, along with the artistic rebranding and visual coordination of the entire 3rd Edition Dungeons & Dragons and Forgotten Realms product lines from Wizards Of The Coast.

Check out his fabulous website.

Featured here are two of my favorite Lockwood paintings, "Dragonfire" and "Spider Queen".  Someday I hope to order prints of each of these for my office subterranean lair.

Fantasy art just doesn't get any better, in my opinion. 

Book Review: Swordmage

I just finished reading Richard Baker's Swordmage: Blades Of The Moonsea Book 1, and I find that I really enjoyed it.  Being one of the first Forgotten Realms paperbacks set in the newly revised, and much maligned, fourth edition of the setting I was a little skeptical going in, but Baker weaves a good tale and I quickly forgot all my greivances about the damage done to the Realms. 

There's lot's of good magic use sprinkled throughout the book which is nice.  I really don't like it when a Realms book goes too many chapters with nothing fantastic going on.  Realms books shouldn't descend into political intrigues and mundane mysteries for too long before some spells are hurled or fantastic creatures are unleashed, othewise why use the setting at all?

The swordplay is well written and not so drawn out that it gets boring.  Large scale battles occur more than once and they also move along at a nice pace.  Some interesting strategies are employed on the battlefield, and again there's plenty of spells and monsters involved so you never forget you're in the Realms.

The main protagonist here is Geran Hulmaster, a Swordmage trained by the elves of Myth Drannor and nephew to the ruler of the city of Hulburg.  Geran returns to his hometown and gets caught up in solving a mystery, with the clues leading him in some unlikely directions.  While Geran is doing his thing sinister forces are descending upon the city that the people of Hulburg may not be able to fend off.  Will Geran solve the riddle?  Will there be a city to return to?  I'm not telling, go buy the book and find out for yourself.

Dungeons & Dragons Pinball

A few years ago I was strolling through a local pinball store thinking about buying one of their used video arcade games for my soon to be finished basement game room and I spotted a Dungeons & Dragons pinball game.  Now, I was never really into pinball, and in fact I never knew this game existed, but I WAS a big Dungeons & Dragons collector, so I decided I had to have it.  After the game was delivered I played it... and played it... and played it and pretty soon I was hooked on pinball! 

Dungeons & Dragons was made in 1987 by Bally.  There were 2000 units made in total, and according to the markings underneath the playfield, mine is serial number 663 and was completed on October 27th.

Here is a picture of the game:

Here is a view of the playfield detail:

My high score to date is featured in the column on the right.