Disney's Maleficent Trailer Has Arrived

Leading up to Disney's Maleficent I really had no interest in checking it out.. But today somehow it ended up in my Facebook feed so I decided to check it out.. I have to say I was very impressed with what I saw. To a point.

It begins very dark and foreboding like the classic Disney films from back when I was a kid. Something I have always hoped Disney would go back to. But this all ended when the name Angelina Jolie flashed on the screen. My heart sank.

I have nothing against the actress. She is actually very good. However I feel like in a movie like this one she has become too high profile. It will always be Angelina Jolie playing Maleficent and not just a living embodiment of that character. A shame really because it looked very promising. I think some of the special effects could use a bit of a touch up towards the end but other than that very good. Hopefully I will be proven wrong and Jolie will be able to make me forget who she is like Tom Cruise did in Tropic Thunder. Only time will tell.

Streamlined vs Sandbox

In all my time of running and preparing games I have always thought of the game as being a sandbox. I've always let players run where they want and had a couple different scenarios ready to go depending on where they went. All having to do with some of the lore I had developed within the world.

Recently however I have began to finally come to my senses and realize it would be much easier on me to begin to run a more structured or streamlined adventure. Not something that I would railroad, but rather an adventure that I have carefully crafted and set up specifically for them to run through from beginning to end.

But, do I really want to run a game that way? Honestly, I will probably always prefer sandbox simply because it really gives players the freedom to do whatever they want. I guess it's a nice challenge for me, as a DM, to figure stuff out on the fly. I'd guess that a sandbox game would be the ideal way to run a session, at least in my opinion. But if you are low on time or are not good under pressure a pre-made adventure might be what you need.

This sudden realization came after Joseph Bloch over at Greyhawk Grognard posed the question of how to run a non-sandbox wilderness adventure. So, I guess I'm not too alone in the way I try and prepare things. With school now taking up more time than I would like, I will probably have to begin falling back on more streamlined adventures. It's not ideal, but I have to be realistic and keep the players in mind as well.

How do you prefer to run your games?

Swords & Wizardry Complete PDF Free?

It has been brought to my attention by Erik Tenkar over at Tenkar's Tavern that the guys over at Frog God Games are doing something really cool with their new Kickstarter. Right now they are trying to put together The Lost Lands campaign world that is written by Bill Webb. The man behind plenty of Swords & Wizardry products.

In order to get a lot more people on board they have promised that once they hit 400 backers they will make the Swords & Wizardry Complete PDF free to EVERYONE. A seriously cool update from those guys. They are currently sitting on 330 backers right now with 24 days to go. So in the next week or so I'm sure we'll see that goal reached.

In terms of the Kickstarter itself it will be funded in time. They only need about $5,000 to reach the project goal and like I said above a solid 24 days left. Now the only question is how many stretch goals can they hit. So go over and check them out, even if you are only giving $5 you'll probably still be getting the Complete PDF which is still selling for $10 on their site right now.

Barnes & Noble is Lacking

Today after I had finished up at school I decided to head over to my local Barnes & Noble. It has been quite some time since I had been over there, plus the Starbucks that is inside has those fantastic pumpkin spice drinks this time of year.

Anyway I go in and start looking for something from Jack Vance. Nothing. OK, they have to have something by Poul Anderson right? Nope. Alright, alright.. Clark Ashton Smith? Nadda. By this point I was unsure if I was in a book store or some kind of hipster meeting ground. Finally I look for some Michael Moorcock. Elric finally appears. I looked it over but at that point I was kind of getting irritated by the lack of selection their Fantasy section had.

As I was standing in the Fantasy/Sci Fi section I began looking at all the new stuff and I realized I have no idea what is good any more. Who are good authors nowadays? Does anyone know?

If your curious I didn't end up picking any books up but I did have a damn good pumpkin spice frappucino which made up for the trip.

Adventures in the East Mark Kickstarter

Recently a lot of people have been hesitant to donate to RPG Kickstarters. Some bad experiences with Dwimmermount or Axes and Anvils will certainly do it. But I believe I have found one that is worth giving to that will also deliver on their promise.

The game is called Adventures in the East Mark. What they are trying to do is bring their game over from Spain in a nice looking Red Box. The only thing they really need the money for is translation and production. Yes, something could probably go horribly wrong but their is always a risk involved with Kickstarter. However I think this is about as good a bet as you can place.

I have to say the product look pretty damn good as well. Today they posted an "unboxing" of the Spanish version just to give backers or potential backers a taste of what they have in store for the English translation. It's worth checking out. Head on over to thier Kickstarter now and see for yourself.

Back Again.. For Now

Once again I'm posting after a very, very long hiatus. Well I'm back and a lot has changed since my last post. Once again I have returned back to my comic roots and decided that once again I'm going to attempt to pick up the pencil and see if I still have any artistic talent left. I haven't done anything yet but I do have an account set up over at Deviant Art that I will use to post my art if I do finally start up again.

Well last night I watched UFC Fight Night and there were some amazing fights. Oddly enough it overshadowed all of the premiere of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF). This season even has Kimbo Slice but the first fight that opened up Fight Night was Nate Quarry vs Tim Creduer (sp?). Epic fight.. All TUF really had was a couple funny fights between Rashad and Rampage and a rather boring, but INSANELY bloody fight.

Well since I have made this post maybe I will decide to come back and do more posts here.. Maybe eventually I'll do some comic book reviews or something. I will definitely come back and talk about UFC 103 this weekend.

Arlovski's Road to Affliction: Day of Reckoning

Affliction has managed to put together a really card at the last show and this time around it is no different. I guess the only difference is they always use up all their talent. So Day of Reckoning has been a long time coming with some great names on the card most notably Fedor and Arlovski. Unfortunately however Affliction is horrible at marketing their superfights and it seems that fans are doing the job for them.

Below you can see the best piece of marketing that I have seen for the big fight between Arlovski and Fedor yet. Oddly enough this video only focuses on Arlovski too. Thats really how bad things are getting. Well anyway check it out below..


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Bobby Lashley vs Joshua Franklin Fight Video

Another wrestler has decided to take a stab at MMA and by wrestler I mean Professional wrestling.. The staged fighting WWE, TNA, ECW stuff. His debut fight took place on Dec. 13th in Miami, Fl. for the American Fight League. You can watch his debut below and feel free to comment about the fight..

Cris Cyborg is a BEAST

I'm back once again and I think I will be updating this much more now. I have a general idea of what I am gonna do here.. But I think I'm just gonna make this the manly mans blog. Hot chicks, fights and other cool shit that I like. One of them of course being MMA.

My first post oddly enough is going to be about Women's MMA. I'm not sure why Dana White doesn't pull his head out of his ass and realize that there is a lot of talent out there.. Well namely Gina Carano and maybe even better Cris Cyborg. Now I have never seen a full Cyborg fight but after watching this video below you will see why I am so impressed.

I have watched almost every single one of Gina Carano's fights and in all honesty they are nothing like this. Check it out..