Author Archives: tinkergoth

Kaiju, Mutants and Robots Oh My! – Godzilla & X-Men: Days of Future Past Reviews

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I’m going to make this one quick. The last couple of days have been a drain, but I wanted to at least get a quick review of these movies done. I’m going to do them both in the one post, and they’re going to be short reviews compared to the essays that I normally write. That way I can devote time to some other updates I’ve got in the works without feeling like I’ve got something else I have to do first.

Fair warning, same as whenever I review stuff, there could be some spoilers in here. I’ll try to avoid anything major.

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Interview with Wendy N. Wagner, Author of Skinwalkers

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And we’re back, with the third interview of the week, and probably the last for a little while. Don’t worry, more interviews will be forthcoming, as soon as I can find anyone willing to sit still long enough for me to bombard them with questions. As I’ve mentioned before, this interview is actually the first one I had scheduled, but was delayed due to the need to get the other interviews published while the related Kickstarter campaign still had plenty of run time. That’s out-of-the-way now, so it’s finally time.

After I reviewed Wendy N. Wagner’s first novel, Skinwalkers, I decided on a whim to send an email to Wendy asking if she would be interested in being my first interviewee for the blog. I’d been vaguely thinking about starting to try to interview various authors, designers and so on for a little while, and it seemed like an opportune time to start, since I was curious about the differences between writing short fiction and writing a novel, as well as the process of writing for an established setting like Pathfinder. Email sent, I figured it’d be a while before I heard back, and was pleasantly surprised to get a reply from Wendy within the next day, agreeing to the interview. So I whipped up some questions, fired them off, and am now ready to share the responses.

Now, before we get started, if you haven’t read my review of the novel Skinwalkers yet, I recommend doing so first. It might help give some context. You can find the review here: Review – Pathfinder Tales: Skinwalkers.

Wendy N. Wagner, wearing what I suspect is a Lovecraft Historical Society shirt (and if it is, I'm jealous).

Wendy N. Wagner, wearing what looks like a Lovecraft eZine t-shirt. Who doesn’t love Lovecraft?

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Interview with Morgan Boehringer, Independent RPG Designer & Publisher

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As I mentioned at the end of my last update, I’ve got another interview for you today.

Morgan Boehringer is a freelance RPG designer based somewhere in the Blue Mountains here in Australia. Not exactly sure where, but having been up at Jenolan Caves for a wedding back in March, I can honestly say that if his home looks anything like the areas I was riding through, then it’s a beautiful place. Jammy bastard… Where was I. Ah yes. He can be found lurking around the Paizo Messageboards under the name Oceanshieldwolf, and is the mind behind Forest Guardian Press, a third-party publisher that focuses on content for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, with his first product, the Direlock class, already being available from Paizo.com. He’s also been involved in various projects run by other publishers, and is currently developing content for the Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock Kickstarter.

For an unaltered image in all his unfettered, shirtless and tattooed glory, see below the interview

For an unaltered image of Morgan in all his unfettered, shirtless and tattooed glory, see below the interview

I interviewed Morgan earlier this week about his work as a designer, and the Strange Brew project. Thankfully, he lives in the same time zone as me, so we could actually do a real-time interview. Time differences are of course one of the biggest inconveniences of living in Australia… well, that and the drop bears… and the ridiculously inflated prices we’re expected to pay for goods and services compared to the USA… you know what? I’m going to stop there and just get down to the reason we’re here.

The point is that we were able to chat online instead having him answer a set of questions I’d emailed to him, getting answers back, and emailing further questions that arose from his responses. It led to a very different feel to the interview. I deliberately didn’t plan it out too much, so that we could just see where the conversation went. I think it turned out well. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily a better way to interview, but it’s good for something different, and I have a preference for it.

So, let’s get down to it.

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Interview with Timothy S. Brannan, Lead Designer for Strange Brew

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Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome back to the Grassy Gnoll!

Sorry for the slight delay in updates, it’s been a hectic time over the last week, and I had some new stuff on the go that took a while to get organised. I think the wait was worth it though, and I’m ready to unveil what I’ve been working on. So I’ve got something a bit different for you all today. As part of my reboot, for want of a better term, of the blog, I decided to start doing some interviews with authors, designers and pretty much anyone who’ll agree to answer my questions.

Note: In the interests of honesty, I’ll just say that this actually isn’t my first interview, but since it’s related to a Kickstarter project, and is therefore time sensitive, I’ve pushed publication of that one back until the weekend… Sorry Wendy, I hope you don’t mind! I promise it’ll go up as soon as it can. 

Today I’ll be posting some questions that Timothy S. Brannan, the author and lead designer of Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock, has been kind enough to answer. Tim is a long time gamer, and the author of the Liber Mysterium, a third party sourcebook for D&D 3.0 that was released back in 2002. A lot of the Liber Mysterium’s content is being updated for Pathfinder as part of the Strange Brew project. You can find the Kickstarter page for this project here:

Kickstarter – Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock

Cover art for Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock

Cover art for Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock

Before we get started though, I’d like to thank Tim for taking the time to answer these questions, and giving us some insight into his history as a gamer and designer, and what he has in store for Pathfinder players who want more options for their witches and warlocks. I’d also like to thank Christina Stiles, who is coordinating the project, for being so open to the idea of my interviewing the people involved, and helping to make this happen.

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Role-Playing 101: The Laundry RPG – Session 1

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Hey guys,

I’m starting off a new feature for the blog today. Role-Playing 101 is going to document the trials and tribulations that I face as I teach a group of teenagers to role-play. There’ll be some funny moments, occasional glimpses of glory, and a not insignificant amount of frustration (mostly on my part), but also a hell of a lot of fun. It’ll be updated on a very irregular basis, as it generally require me to have actually run a session for the group recently, and it’s not often that we actually get to play. The actual content will be a combination of a session recap and brief discussions about the system (though more in-depth reviews may come later on).

How did I end up running introductory games for teenagers? It’s my attempt to continue the chain that my uncle started when he bought me my first role-playing book for my twelfth birthday, the Player’s Handbook for D&D 3rd Edition. A bit over a year ago, I offered to teach my cousin to play. It took a while to get started, as he needed to gather a group of friends to play with, but eventually we were ready to play. The first session I ran for them was Pathfinder, where I quickly learnt that running for bunch of fourteen year olds is far different to running a game for adults. They picked up the notion of “kill things and take their stuff” very quickly, but were having a bit of difficulty with the idea of “talking to things to see if we can avoid killing them”. Now, to be fair, D&D/Pathfinder is at its core, the game of “killing things and taking their stuff”, but Paizo’s work with Pathfinder has really started to move beyond that, often allowing for other means such as diplomacy or subterfuge to be just as effective as barreling in with swords drawn. Trying to get this concept across sparked an idea, that maybe I could help them learn that there are multiple approaches to these games by running a variety of systems for them, with the added benefit that they’d be able to pick a system they liked when they’re eventually ready to run their own games. So the group agreed that I would run each system for two to three sessions, then pick another one.

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Review – Pathfinder Tales: The Redemption Engine

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Alright guys, we’re back with another review.

As I mentioned last time, I’ll be reviewing the latest Pathfinder Tale’s novel, The Redemption Engine.  Please take this as your warning for potential minor spoilers for the novel, because damn it I have to talk about it to review it, now don’t I. Not much else to say really, so let’s just get straight to it.

The Redemption Engine

James L. Sutter

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Used under the Pathfinder Community Use Policy

Salim, Pathfinder’s answer to Captain Jack Harkness, faces off against an angel. Wait a second… aren’t angels the good guys? Like, by definition?  What gives?

From the Paizo.com blurb:

When murdered sinners fail to show up in Hell, it’s up to Salim Ghadafar, an atheist warrior forced to solve problems for the goddess of death, to track down the missing souls. In order to do so, Salim will need to descend into the anarchic city of Kaer Maga, following a trail that ranges from Hell’s iron cities to the gates of Heaven itself. Along the way, he’ll be aided by a host of otherworldly creatures, a streetwise teenager, and two warriors of the mysterious Iridian Fold. But when the missing souls are the scum of the earth, and the victims devils themselves, can anyone really be trusted?

From acclaimed author James L. Sutter comes a sequel to Death’s Heretic, ranked #3 on Barnes & Noble’s Best Fantasy Releases of 2011!

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Review – Pathfinder Tales: Skinwalkers

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Hey guys. There won’t be a recap of last night’s Reign of Winter session today, because I had to call it off at the last-minute.

My friend Edwin made a valiant effort at stopping a goal in hockey yesterday, but got a high-speed booted kick in the jaw for his trouble (not intentional, the guy was just running hard as he could, and ran straight through Eddie, taking a tumble himself in the process), and his wife is currently out-of-town. So I called Jimbles, let him know what had happened, picked up some Goodberry’s frozen custard and rolled around with a bag of DVDs to keep him company and make sure he was okay.  I think the rest of the group understands, when a friend is hurt and needs you, they take priority. He would have done the same for me if the roles had been reversed… Hell, over the years he’s done things like this for me countless times. The strangest thing about the whole situation though was the song I was listening to when I got his call… I’d been listening to various OSTs all day for inspiration while writing, and decided to swap over to Chevelle’s latest album, La Gárgola. Track 4 had just got through the intro when I got the call. The name of the track? Jawbreaker. Ah Synchronicity, your sense of humour is as gloriously dark as ever.

Anyway, he’s fine now, though still very sore. And I promised an update today, so even though I don’t have a session to recap (and won’t until June, at least not for Pathfinder, as the group have other commitments until then), I had to come up with something for you. Which is when I realised that this is the perfect opportunity to stop thinking about reviews, and actually write some. I’m going to start with something a bit easier to review than source books though, since that involves having to weigh up concepts of game balance, playability and so on. So my first review is going to be for one of the more recent Pathfinder Tales novels, Skinwalkers.

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Reign of Winter: The Bard and the Dragon

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So I felt this needed to be posted while it’s still relatively fresh in my mind. As some of you might remember, the only game I’m playing in instead of running right now (well, until the Numenera game starts up again) is a Pathfinder campaign, Reign of Winter, run by my sometimes co-blogger Professor Jimbles. It’s a campaign that explores a number of themes, with the earliest one introduced being Russian folklore, including Baba Yaga, her dancing hut and her three riders; household spirits like the Domovoi; Winter Witches; cruel fae and never-ending magical winters. The folklore theme looks to be continuing through the whole campaign, but I know that later on additional elements of plane hopping and so on will be added (book 5 is called Rasputin Must Die! and features a WWII scene on the front cover… looking forward to that).

Anyway, when it came time to roll up a character for this game, I went with something I haven’t done in a very long time, and went Bard. Initially I made a Soundstriker archetype Bard, but after a rather heated discussion thread started on the Paizo messageboards between players and the developers regarding changes to the class, and there was no confirmation about the ruling for a long time (in fact, there still hasn’t been official errata released), I spoke to Jimbles and asked if I could re-roll as a Thundercaller, as it had a similar flavour to what I wanted from my Soundstriker anyway. Now, for those of you not familiar the various classes of D&D 3.5/Pathfinder, I’ll explain.

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Back in business…

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The sun won’t set, ’til the pain and the final breath…

Alright ladies and gentlemen, I’m back. Let’s start with a quick update about what’s been going on, and what’s going to be happening for the future of this blog.

What’s been happening?

First up, apologies for the longer than expected delay. Turns out that my ISP are less than efficient when it comes to actually doing their goddamn jobs, and it took far longer than it should have to get my net hooked up. By the time they told me it was hooked up, I was due to go house sit for six weeks on the other side of town, and when I got home I discovered that my connection actually hadn’t been hooked up. Add another week to get a tech out to have a look, who turned out to be one of the most bigoted, racist bastards I’ve ever met… I had to deal with a twenty minute rant about “sand monkeys”, and yes, he really did use that term. But, I now have internet access again. I’m also still unpacking here (it’s a much slower process than I expected), which has sapped much of my time for doing anything hobby related.

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Hiatus

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Hi everyone,

Sorry this took so long to get posted. Things have been hellishly busy for me, and I haven’t had reliable internet service outside of work for the last month. Truth be told, I still don’t, and won’t for another couple of weeks possibly. But I’m taking the time to just throw a quick post up from the office on my lunch break, as I felt those of you who are still reading the blog deserved an explanation for my absence.

Long story short, while looking for a new housemate I quickly realised that I wasn’t going to be able to find one at the rent the real estate were asking, and I couldn’t afford the place on my own. Thus started the fastest bloody house hunt in known history. Within a fortnight I’d managed to find a place to live (actually back in my old apartment) and agree on a favourable arrangement with the owners. The packing began… and that’s where I ran into trouble. I’ve accumulated so much crap it’s not funny. So I had to pay movers to shift my furniture, and conscript friends as often as I could to get the rest of my stuff over there. But going from a 3 bedroom townhouse to a 1 bedroom unit means a massive downgrade in space, and unpacking has been a very slow process as I gradually sort through boxes and dispose of what I can. It’ll be another week or so until I have the place really liveable, and in the mean time I’ve also had to try and get the old place up to scratch so I can get my bond back.

This also didn’t turn out very well for me in terms of timing. I had a trip to Sydney already paid for midway through the packing process (I got to meet Jimmy Carr!), and the added expense of moving has thrown a huge spanner in the works for me given that I’m meant to be at Soundwave this weekend, and at a friend’s out-of-town wedding two weekends  from now. But, we’ll get there. Just means I have to live a little uncomfortably for a while until I get myself back on my feet and have my rego paid for.

So, when will I be ready to start posting again? Not until mid-March at the earliest, more likely early April. I’m hoping that Jimbles will be able to write some posts up in the mean time, but certainly I won’t be posting anything. I’ll try to find another guest writer or two to help out (and hey, if you want to write something, let me know… I’d be ever so grateful).

I have access to check my email while I’m at work, and can check it now and again in the evenings and on the weekend, so if you want to contact me for any reason, flick me a message through the Questions and Queries page, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

I can’t wait to get back to posting regularly, and I apologise again for the delay. When I come back, I think I’m going to drop the movie reviews I was doing for the film festival, and just jump straight back into gaming. I’ll do a few reviews of the movies here and there, but just for the ones that I really enjoyed and want to recommend. I think it’s important that I get the blog back to the main topic of gaming for a while though.

Until next time, keep those dice rolling.