Stranger than a barrel full of midgets and toilet monkies! 

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I often wonder about the people who play D&D, especially with some of the people I have encountered on the forums and locally. A lot of them do not play D&D in a fashion I would find enjoyable.

I tend to run clean, story driven campaigns. I am not comfortable with including a lot of rampaging sex in my games. Mostly because my kids are running around the house when I run my games. However, when I have run romance related stories I always fade to black and cut from the private moments. I would never consider having a character raped. Yet there are people who think this is a great idea! I know numerous accounts where the DM would stage rapes in game against the sole female player's character. Great way to encourage females to play the game guys, losers. One incident involved a female who wanted her character to turn evil, so the DM's solution to this was to have a bunch of Bug Bears burst in on her and take advantage of the situation. Apparently the DM is not only sexually frustrated but is also not that creative since he cannot find any other story option that would allow the character to change alignment. Personally I do not see why anyone would want to change alignments anyway.

I have heard several times people state that characters MUST to be able to fly by mid levels and if they could not then they were not competitive. I have to do a double take on this many times. I personally find the flying rules to be really annoying and cumbersome. I also fail to see why flying is such a big deal. Do players really feel the need to play combats out on as large of a map as possible? Are GMs really throwing that many flying creatures at them? Geez, learn to use ready actions and strike as the stupid things fly past you. If I wanted to play a flying character I would play Champions, at least that system has good flying rules.

Why do some people insist on finding every loop hole in the rules, and then arguing with the DM when the spirit of the rules are used? This is pretty common in a lot of the D&D games I have witnessed. I am sorry if a player's Barbarian can not use a bucket full of snails to get the most from a whirlwind attack, but please get a life! Did Conan the Barbarian carry a bucket full of snails when he went to bash evil? Did he fly to do it? I know people who sit around and calculate the maximum amount of damage they can do with certain combinations of classes and feats. Do these people not have a life? That seems to suck the fun right out of the game.

What is up with people who's character has a minimum of 6 different classes or prestige classes? Sounds like the characters are flakes and cannot make up their minds what they want to do. Truth be told it is because the player is trying to power game and get some combination of abilities that makes annoying characters. I am pretty strict on multi-classing, but then I am running a serious D&D campaign that is not about power gaming munchkins trying to increase the size of their rod through their D&D characters.

I also get tired of hearing WOTC is evil and how they just want our money especially with a new updated edition coming out. Big DUH! WOTC is first and foremost a company which wants to make money. They are not some idealistic hippie community that wants to provide everything free, despite the fact the basic rules are available for download. I look forward to the new 3.5 edition and hope it fixes many of the loop holes and silly concepts in D&D.

I know that we live in America and that means we need to be accepting of different ideas. I accept the fact that people will play D&D in a lot of different ways, however that does not mean I have to like it or agree with them but it does mean I can rant about it on my soap box! Honestly, if anything I ranted about resembles your group and you are having fun with it- more power to you. Just leave me out of it.

-FIN

I decided at Roundcon this year that I wanted a digital camera. Actually I decided before Roundcon when I saw the bucket full of undeveloped film. So instead of spending the $300 to develop the film I spend $600 on a filmless camera. 

I knew what I was looking for in a camera. I wanted something with a good optical zoom and it needed at least 3 megapixels. After a month of looking I settled on the Dimage 5 by Minolta.  The camera has a X7 optical zoom, a Macro function for those up close shots and a X2 Digital Zoom.

First let me say that despite the hassle I had getting the camera that I love it! I bought the camera online from a shop called Digital Liquidators. Considering the name I should have known it was going to be a hassle. I ordered the camera online. A few days later I get an e-mail that I have to call them for confirmation. I called them only to put up with high pressure sales techniques. While the camera was a good price ($499) the other accessories were outrageously priced. I successfully avoided all the accessories until the sales rep told me that I was just buying the camera. If I wanted the cables and software that I needed it would be another $50. I told him that according to the Minolta site all that is supposed to come with it and he did not have an answer for it. At that time I should have told him to cancel the order but didn't since the price still was not bad. I got the camera the following day and discovered it did not work. It was missing the batteries and the box was missing the UPC code. I called Minolta and was able to send it to them and got a working one within two weeks. 

I am amazed at how good the image quality is on the pictures even on just the medium quality setting. I wanted a camera that can take really good pictures of my miniatures and the Dimage 5 does that! Another bonus is with the zoom I can get in real close when people do not want me to. I find the camera is very user friendly, even though it does not look like it would be with all of its buttons and dials. There is also a flash unit that is concealed. 

My only complaint is that the batteries drain to fast when you use the auto focus. That is common with all digital cameras. However, that is easily corrected by picking up a few extra sets of batteries or even the AC adapter. 

If anyone is thinking of getting a digital camera I highly recommend the Dimage 5! I do suggest that you attempt to buy it locally or from a reputable dealer such as Amazon, unless you want to take a chance. 

-FIN

Jason X, A Review
May 1st, 2002

I went to see Jason X with my good friend Martin and we were very surprised to find a packed theater. I was not expecting this type of turnout for what looked like a low budget cheesy slasher flick. I had no expectations for the movie at all, since I have never seen any of the Friday the 13th films. Honestly I went because Lisa Ryder and Lexa Doig from Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda were in the film. 

The plot is very predictable. Jason is frozen cryogenically by accident and sometime in the future a group of unsuspecting lust crazed teenagers find him and he thaws out killing almost everyone onboard the space craft. There are glaring gaps in logic, such as having military combat units aboard a space craft and no having any sort of low-light or infrared imaging equipment. They had flashlights. Flashlight?? Apparently all the common sense was flush down the toilet by a monkey.

Jason X is not a suspenseful horror movie, you know exactly when someone is about to get killed. Usually it is right after the actor or actress says a clever line of dialog. The situations are so absurd that I hurt myself laughing as they died. My favorite scene is a play on the original movie with two nubile teens telling Jason that they like to smoke pot and have premarital sex. They climb into their sleeping bags and then we cut away. A few moments later we cut back to Jason using one of the teens in a sleeping bag as a club to beat the other one. The scene is just too dang funny! 

I liked the role reversal of Lisa Ryder and Lexa Doig. On Andromeda Lexa Doig plays an android who is trying to understand human feelings. In this film, Lisa Ryder was the android. In fact, Lisa Ryder complete steals the show with her antics in her first battle with Jason. Unfortunately even the upgraded android is no match for the newly improved Jason when he gets rebuilt by the ship's medical center.

Like all good slasher films, the ending leaves the possibility for a sequel. Overall, I greatly enjoyed this film. It made me laugh, a lot! 

-FIN

Freedom Force, A Review
April 17th, 2002

Every so often a game comes along that really takes you by surprise at how enjoyable it is. Freedom Force is one of those games. The game was developed by Irrational Games and already has made its way to the top 10 list.

Freedom Force is a game about super heroes and is a cross between an RPG and a tactical game. Through the course of the game you recruit heroes into your team and use up to 4 of them on missions. At the start of every mission you get a cut scene, which captures the essence of the 4 color comic book genre complete with evil communists and campy remarks. 

Game play itself is similar to many of the point and click war games, but the environment is almost completely interactive. You can grab a lamp pole and smack a villain with it. You can even reduce a building to rubble or toss a car around. This alone impressed me. What impressed me more was how the environment interacted with you. If you are crossing a street cars will slam on breaks and try to stop for you. Too often the cars just keep going and hit you. There are some glitches in the engine, like for example you can rotate the camera around to far, which occasionally leads to a problem. However you do have the option of making most terrain invisible so that when your characters are behind it you can see them. A mini map would have been nice, but that would give you an omni-potent view, which I do not always like in games. 

I think the coolest aspect of the game is the fact you can make your own heroes to recruit. The creation system allows you to customize a large number of super powers to the exact degree that you want to. In addition there are a number of programs out there that will let you create you own mesh so that your character will look exactly like you want it to. However, installing meshes and new skins can be difficult and some seem to not work correctly. The Freedom Force Center is the best site to get meshes and skins from.

Overall I really like the Freedom Force game! It has a lot of replay value since you can use different characters on missions and the number of character concepts are limitless. 

-FIN

Warhammer 40K, A Rant
March 1st, 2002

I can honestly say that since I have been gaming I have always played Warhammer 40K. For those of you that do not know, it is a 25mm miniature tactical skirmish game set in the far future. The game is made by Games Workshop and they have some absolutely beautiful miniatures. My wife recently has complained that I have way too many of their miniatures, and I do. I did an inventory recently and I have several thousand pieces of their products. The problem is that I no longer play. Why is this you ask?

Let's start way back in early 90's when I was a retail shop owner and carried their products. Games Workshop has just gone to independent distribution, which meant as a shop owner I had to deal directly with them. I had no problem with this. What I did start having a problem with was all the customers who thought they needed to have a voice is the manufacturer/retailer relationship. I cannot begin to count how many times customers got upset that Games Workshop would not sell their products to just anyone with a retail license. Dare we dream that they do legitimate business with people who have a store front and not a group of losers who just want to order directly from a company at wholesale prices. 

Since I have been involved in the hobby, (keeping in mind I was there at the very beginning) I have watched prices rise to some strange extremes. The plastic kits usually start at $30 or $35 which is way overpriced. Single figure modules also vary and can also get pretty pricey with $10 and sometimes $15 for character models. I can not really complain about that since there is usually a good bit of detail on them. I personally suspect that the price revolves around how useful the model is to the player. I do admit that while I no longer play the game, I do still buy some of their miniatures. The fantasy line is really good for using with D&D games.  

Let's talk rules! I have played the game through three separate revisions and have seen some of the material planned for the fourth revision, which is finally just an update as opposed to a complete rewrite.  It amazes me that the game has gone so far to just end up back with essentially the same mechanics of the first edition. Another problem I have is with game balance. There is no attempt at making any of the units really balanced since the point costs are pulled out of the air. It might help if the rule books were written in a concise and coherent manner, but often I find gaping holes in their examples and rules. In addition each new army is stronger and more gimmicky than the last one.  I am honestly fearing the Squats (space midgets) since they will probably be the last army to be redone and I have the feeling that they will shoot lasers out of their eyes and have fly on space surfboards and be bullet proof!

The game now appeals to annoying teenagers, who cannot really afford to buy the miniatures but insist on playing, Instead they purchase any number of the copy-cat miniatures out on the market and play the substitution game. I can understand having limited cash to support this hobby, but one does not need to go out and buy the largest army possible! It would also be nice if they would bother painting them but they don't. 

I am also boggled by the player's tendency to want to play as large of a battle as possible. The game is a skirmish game, its not designed to handle a futuristic Invasion of Normandy. Do the players not have a life?  I guess that the game has become their life. While the new rules are more streamlined than previous versions, anything on a very large scale will take forever to resolve and it just isn't what I want anymore in a game system.

-FIN