AAARGH!

Audible's posted a release date for Robert Jordan's Lord of Chaos: August 16. Which is three days before I leave my current job and go on vacation. I was hoping it would come out in early August, so I'd have time to listen to it during my still-henious 2+ hour commute, before transitioning to my new and improved 5-minute commute at my new job.

Oh well, three days it better than no days. And I'll still be able to listen to it in 10-minute blocks on my way to work once I move on...

Joystiq Podcast

The Joystiq gaming blog, which I read pretty frequently, is launching their own podcast. The blog focuses on console and computer gaming (rather than pen & paper) and it's a decent read, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with an audio format.

RPG: A Random Password Generator

While searching for Mac role-playing game tools, I came across the very nifty RPG (Random Password Generator) program for Mac OS X. This program will generate very tough passwords with a variety of permutations: upper and lower case, numerals, special characters, variable length, etc.

It's great for anyone who's looking to create passwords that are a little more unique than their cat's name.

Stormwrack

I generally don't go in for these environment-specific supplements, but Stormwrack looks interesting. From Amazon.com:

A complete guide to playing D&D in sea and storm. The third in a series of beautifully illustrated supplements focusing on play in specific environmental climes, Maelstrom™ contains rules on play in watery environments. Not only are rules for sea campaigns offered, but rules for including water environments in land-based D&D campaigns and dungeon adventures are also covered. Included is extensive information on lakes and rivers; hazards such as exposure, storms, and waterspouts; races, including non-aquatic races associated with the sea; equipment, including detailed deck plans for ships; monsters; magic, including psionic elements; skills; feats; and more.

The name in the description doesn't match that in the title on Amazon, but it sounds interesting either way. Rules for adventuring in water are always hard to come by, and I particularly like the idea of detailed ship plans -- we definitely need more of those.

Blizzard Ponders Portable Starcraft, Diablo II

Joystiq is reporting that Blizzard is asking their fans whether they'd be interested in the Playstation PSP and the Nintendo DS versions of Starcraft and Diablo II.

Too freaking cool. The DS would be perfect for Diablo II's slash-and-click playstyle. I never played Starcraft so I can't comment too much on that, but I'd definitely love to see more RTS strategy games on either platform.

Radio Active #11: The Clock Strikes The 13th Hour

I recorded this podcast on the 13th, but only got around to posting it today, which just goes to show that I really need to format my show notes before I do the podcast (the notes having been the big hang-up). Anyway, this edition of the show focuses on a review of Midnight Syndicate's The 13th Hour horror rpg soundtrack. Check out the show.

Scarred Lands Fan Sites?

I was thinking of doing a Summon WebScryer column on Scarred Lands for Knights of the Dinner Table, but I'm having a devil of a time finding any fan sites. It could be that the setting's fan sites have died off with the line itself (White Wolf recently killed the setting) but still, there should be plenty of sites out there ... if Star Frontiers can still have its loyal legions, then you'd then that Scarn would still have a few kicking around.

It's disappointing, because I actually like the setting (and play in a monthly campaign set in Scarn). I'm not sure if the net noise -- Scarred Land product listings and review -- is hiding the fan sites, or if they're just not there, but either way I'd like to find them. If you know of one, please e-mail me or post a comment.

All Things Jeep

Sue got me one of All Things Jeep's "Life is Good" t-shirts, which just freaking rocks (and which I'm wearing right now).

I love the sentiment, which is a very Jeep-thing (as well as a very Objectivist thing). I notice they have a bunch of cool Jeep bumper stickers, so I think I'm going to have to order a little something from the site myself.

Lord of Chaos

Audible's "Coming Soon" list now has Robert Jordan's Lord of Chaos book being released in August. That's excellent -- I've really been hankering to listen to more Wheel of Time novels.

The Science Fiction Podcast Network

Good news everybody! Mike Stackpoole (yes, that Mike) and a group of other scifi podcasters has put together The Science Fiction Podcast Network. They've got great plans -- great I say! -- and invited me and Nuketown Radio Active to participate.

It took me a while to get my act together (Mike e-mailed me back in mid/late June but now that I've recovered from vacation, I've finally signed up. I should be up on the SFPN home page in the near future. I think this is a fantastic idea -- podcasts in other genres are organizing, and with podcasting being incorporated into iTunes 4.9, this is a great time to do it.

World of WarCrack

I finally broke down and bought World of Warcraft, partly because moving Nuketown over to a new host saved me about $30 a month, partly because a campaign member is moving to Portland, and the game provides a way to keep in touch, partly because about half of my D&D campaign is playing it and and mostly because well, it's really freaking cool.

I'm going to be playing on the Thunderhorn server, and -- in a nod to my fallen D&D campaign, I'll be playing a wizard named Zilanderan on the Thunderhorn server. In the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, Zil was a half-crazy mage-blade convinced he was from another plane of existance. In this one, he'll be a fiery, but more grounded, battle mage.

As far as how the install went ... the key word is "long". There are four install CDs, and after going through the account creation process and logging in, I was amazed to find a 174 mb patch waiting to be downloaded. Not cool, but hey, it's 3 a.m. and everyone's asleep, so if I've got to download a big ass file, now's probably a good time to do it.

Radio Active in iTunes Directory!

I just got an e-mail from Paul Maclean's noting that Radio Active is listed in Apple's Podcast directory. Very cool, especially since I never submitted it! Now I really need to get off my ass and update the RSS with Apple's optional codes.

Go Daddy!

I recently registered GriffCrier.com with GoDaddy.com, and I was astounded by how well it worked. It took about a half an hour from the moment I registered the site and set-up the DNS entries to when the site was up and working via its real Web address. Fantastic!

The only downside was when they called to try and upsell me to their "anonymous" domain registration, but such is the way of corporations, so I wasn't too bothered by it -- I got a good rate on the registration, and the phone call wasn't that intrusive.

Radio Active #9

Radio Active #9 is now online and available for listening. I meant to post it before I went on vacation, but -- as is too often the case before vacation -- I ran out of time.

The podcast includes a review of Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow, Wizards of the Coast's D&D rules supplement Libris Mortis, and update on the Atomic Swindlers contest, and speculations on toddlers and Star Wars.

Gibbering Mouther

The message forums at GriffCrier.com are now active. Both campaign and non-campaign members can post, so feel free to stop by and say hello!