Online Trick-Or-Treating

Doorless Chambers is a site that organizes online trick-or-treating for virtual Disney-themed goodies from October 25 through 31. Interesting concept. I might have to participate this year, if I can come up with something decent to share.

My "One Page Dungeon" entry

Recently, an old-school tabletop roleplaying site hosted a one page dungeon design challenge. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to craft an entry, and the deadline passed.

However, due to some confusion, the deadline was extended, and I was able to scrape together some time to make an entry of my own: The Poseidon Adventure. It's released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.

The dungeon itself is a much abbreviated version of an adventure I ran quite a while ago (one of the first I ran using third edition). Some might accuse it of being a device to deliver the punch line of a terrible, terrible joke (it certainly got some mighty groans from my players when I said, as we were putting away the game table, "thanks for playing...the Poseidon adventure."). But really, I think the adventure stands on its own, too. The bad joke is gravy.

If there is interest, I might post what I have from the original adventure, but the primary macguffins from the original adventure are retained in the one-page-dungeon entry itself: the good magic gone bad, the impending rise of a new evil demigod, the drastic change to the dungeon environment halfway through the adventure, and the final race against time to escape the ruins. (And the terrible joke, natch.)

The changing environment in particular made a one-page presentation difficult, since I had to present the environment in both contexts, one in each orientation. As a result, I went more "new school" and kept things short and more plot-oriented than some of the other entries I've seen, but I think the thrill of such a dynamic environment is worth the space devoted to it. We'll see if the judges agree.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Holy Jolokia!

It's official. NMSU has its own hot sauce, taken from the hottest pepper in the world, the Bhut Jolokia. Sales of Holy Jolokia go towards an endowed chair at NMSU. Burn your mouth and help higher education at the same time!

DIY Magic Mirror

The guys over at DIY Magic Mirror used Mirror Mirror and Yorick to create the videos for an installation-based Magic Mirror program. You can extend what his mirror installation does by using any of our digital puppets.

If you create an installation from them, be sure to send us photos and videos - we love to see what people do with them!

Just got back from Puerto Rico

I just returned from Puerto Rico, where I met with a group of fellow Director enthusiasts. It was good to finally put some faces to the names of various Director gurus I've been following for years. (Universally, a great bunch of guys, by the way.) It was Director chatting from morning to late at night for two days straight, and a great look into what other people are doing.

After seeing some of the things these guys are working on, and talking to them about how their current projects are going, I'm more encouraged about the future of Director than I've been lately. It's good to get connected to the community again, and I'm looking forward to doing more Director work in the future.

And a special thanks to Adobe for organizing the retreat. Thanks for one of the best times I've had at a conference in a long time.

You Reap What You Sow

Kathleen Parker, an old-school conservative columnist wrote Giving Up on God for the Washington Post, where she bemoans the fact that the GOP is being dragged down by the Bible-thumping wing of their party. She says, "the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows....shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs."

Well, duh. That's what liberals have been trying to tell you guys all along. Religion is not politics is not religion. Mix them at your own peril, dumbasses.

You reap what you sow. For years, the GOP has been pandering to the uneducated, the superstitious, the resentful, and the xenophobic, using them as an easily-riled base who doesn't really question whether the leaders they elect really legislate in their best interests. They were your "useful idiots," and you built an ongoing drumbeat of spin, misdirection, and outright fabrications to rile them up and draw more into their fold. But ultimately, if that's what you increasingly rely on, if that's where your rhetoric goes, and, as the generations turn, that's where you draw your fresh political blood from, that means you, by definition, will become them.

No whining about it. It's a monster of your own creation. The villagers have torches and pitchforks, Dr. Frankenstein. Your time in the castle is over.

Spinebreakers

Spinebreakers is a site sponsored by Penguin Books which appears to be bringing print publishing up to Web 2.0 sensibilities. It's interesting because traditional print publishers need to keep up if they don't want to become irrelevant, and Penguin Books seems to be doing the right stuff. Between initiatives like Paper Cuts, a competition to get kids to write 100 word essays on what really matters to them and collecting the best ones into a printed volume, to fantastic cover design for classic reprints, they're doing the right stuff.

(And speaking of visual design for book jackets, be sure to check out the Penguin blog, which celebrates print design with articles like this one about designing the covers for a series of horror novel reprints. Good stuff.)

Anyone have a copy of Creature Castle?

You may remember my earlier "nostalgia games" blog entry about Creature Castle.

Well, I've been contacted by someone related to the original creators of the game who is looking for a copy. If you have a copy you're willing to part with, please contact me, and I'll put you in touch.

The Page Has Turned

To all who voted today, and in previous days, for Barack Obama: thank you.

And my children thank you - they just don't know it yet.

Carnival of Souls 2008 a success, but not without problems

This is just a brief note, for those who may be watching, that Carnival of Souls 2008 was a big success this year, but we did have a few problems.

The haunted house was spectacular. The many volunteers came together to make a thrilling experience for visitors. Cries of "That was AWESOME!" were heard throughout the night, and we even had kids stop by the day after to tell us how much fun they had.

There were some problems, however. We had a lot of last-minute cancellations from volunteers, leaving us with eight fewer volunteers than we expected. In addition, we had some people who were only able to work part of the night, so even with covering those losses, we still had holes over the course of the evening. The front yard bore the brunt of this - the carnival games stood unmanned for a good portion of the night, and there was no usher for the Magic Mirror, which caused some trouble. The people who were here soldiered on, and some last-minute volunteers made the situation better than it otherwise would have, though, so it wasn't a disaster. But I do feel bad for the smaller kids who were too young for the haunted house who came and found none of the front yard stuff going.

I'll try to get a page about 2008 up on the web site in a few days. Until then, if you are a volunteer or a visitor, feel free to leave a comment about how YOU thought it went.