Comments for The Geek Life Project

Comment on Another D&D Movie. So what other games would make good movies? by Chuck

Chuck — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:15:04 +0000

Very true. But let’s face it. They made a decent movie from Clue and there’s not much really to that game at all.

Comment on Another D&D Movie. So what other games would make good movies? by Philo Pharynx

Philo Pharynx — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:58:19 +0000

Oh, and Shadowrun would be a cool movie. I could see them downplaying the cyberpunk a bit and upping the urban fantasy thoughts.

Comment on Another D&D Movie. So what other games would make good movies? by Philo Pharynx

Philo Pharynx — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:53:47 +0000

Games are a weird thing to convert into movies.
1) They have concepts but no characters or plot. And a movie with good ideas but no character or plot isn’t a good movie.
1a) WotC owns lots of good characters and stories. They have got a boatload of novels based on their worlds. Why haven’t they tapped this resource?
2) Converting the setting has the same problem that all conversions do. They need to be faithful enough that the true fan appreciates the details you’ve put in. But the non-fan has to understand it.
2a) Games are niche market. Even if every person who’s fondled a polyhedral goes, it’s not enough to make a movie profitable.
2b) Good exposition is hard. Working this into the dialog without sounding boring is really difficult. But there’s another way to do this that’s oh-so-much better – let’s have all the exposition in voice-over! That helps everything!
3) A good world and movie has a specific flavor. The more flavorful the better. But it means more exposition.
3a) The D&D movies so far have made Greyhawk reference here and there. In other words, a cheap Tolkien rip-off. Now that we’ve got some awesome Tolkien movies, any cheap rip off looks even cheaper.
3b) Doing a world like Eberron or Dark Sun would be visually cooler and seperate it from generic fantasy, but it would be much harder to pull off.
4) Courtney Solomon’s movies have ruined the name of D&D to moviegoers. Because of this, they need to shoot much much higher to have people consider seeing any D&D movie.
4a) … Or not call it D&D and use one of the game worlds as it’s name.
4b) If anybody reading this ever gets or builds a time machine, forget Hitler, go back in time and kill Courtney Solomon!

Comment on Paizo Announces Second Edition Pathfinder by panzerleader

panzerleader — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:42:40 +0000

har har. are you sure it isnt pathfinder.5?

Comment on Metal Dice! That sounds kind of cool by Chuck

Chuck — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 13:20:52 +0000

Very true. Wish I could afford it. But like I said roof and art. :)

Comment on Metal Dice! That sounds kind of cool by shortymonster

shortymonster — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:23:48 +0000

I have a nice set of brass dice that I picked up years ago, and there’s something ever so satisfying about the weight and heft of them. Those bad boys look awesome though.

Comment on Vikings On the History Channel by Chuck

Chuck — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:11:23 +0000

While I haven’t formally studied the Vikings, I am interested in them from a family tree sort of way.

Comment on Vikings On the History Channel by shortymonster

shortymonster — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:18:59 +0000

If you find the following anywhere online, it might be of interest to you. As someone who has extensively studied people who go viking for my history degree, the way they’re presented here is pretty bloody top notch.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/1066/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1

Comment on What’s the hardest RPG you ever played? by Cirsova

Cirsova — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 19:09:03 +0000

Well, right now, I’m playtesting Varg Vikernes’ (Burzum) new RPG, MYFAROG. So, uh… I’m going to go with that. As currently written, it is crazy complex.

Comment on What’s the hardest RPG you ever played? by Banesfinger

Banesfinger — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 16:49:30 +0000

I agree with your observations:
#1: if you have a bad player, it doesn’t matter what system you use, no one (Players/DM) will have fun.
#2: like your Toon game, when we played Paranoid (WEG/Mongoose) it threw out every player (and DM) instinct.
#3: if you hate lots of math, stay away from Rolemaster (ICE).
#4: I think Aftermath! (FGU) was a love/hate thing for our group: it was a real brain-buster (1.5 pages of rules just to determine if you can hand something off to another player). But at the time (early ’80s), it was the only post apocalyptic game around (and we were all itching to play a Mad Max style game).