A 2013 Compatible Introduction to the Blog
Hi there. I’m John-Michael. How are you? Mmmhmm. You know, I can’t hear you. Do you mind if I do all the talking? Good. If you want, there’s some soda in the fridge. The couch is all yours.
Welcome to my blog. In my original introduction to this blog, I mentioned I was a game reviewer for The Myriad Games Podcast (which must be somewhere around 250 episodes by now), and that I’ve written a few things for Guilt Free Games and Game Salute. The Myriad Games Podcast has been slow as of late, but we’re still recording. Guilt Free Games is officially defunct. It’s last article was written by me on September of 2011. It’s sad, but it was fun while it lasted. Game Salute is doing much better. I’m guessing it provides the most up-to-date board game news you can reasonably expect to get.
In my original introduction to the blog, I mentioned I’m a writer, but had a hard time owning that title, since I couldn’t prove it without showing a pile of unpublished work. I feel better calling myself a writer now. My book, The Singing Lamp of Bombay, is in its second draft stage, and, while I still have to do a lot of editing, I can say I’ve written a book… even if I’m cheating. I can also point to the 118 articles on this blog. Do WordPress blogs count as ‘published work’? If they do, then I’ve published three books worth of material on this blog alone. At this point, I suppose I have as much right to the word ‘writer’ as anyone else. Professional Writer? That will have to wait.
Enough about me. Let’s talk about what’s on this blog. I’ve a range of interests, but on the blog, I try to keep it to two themes: Games and Writing. To me, they hold mutual mindspace. The intersection of where words meet play; idea meets action. You would think a snazzy name for the blog would have come to me in the sixteen months it’s been live. No such luck. I thought about calling this blog “Triple-Word Score”, but it turns out the internet’s already got one. I could muscle “Double-Word Score” away from some guy who wrote one post about how he’s going to write more back in 2006… but really? Do I really want a name that will always be a shadow of another blog’s name? I’d take “Quadruple Word Score”, but I don’t think I could live up to that standard.
Oh, I’m wasting your time. Here’s some categories:
♦ Board Game Reviews – The crux of my reviews, some new and some old, but none are that old yet. I’m a big fan of the little Indie game that could, and do what I can to support them. That’s not to say I won’t review the shiny new hotness, though. Feel free to look around.
♦ Board Game Philosophy – Articles on games that are not reviews end up here. Oddly, four of the articles in this category are for Monopoly. Those articles include a discussion on the square Free Parking, rules for Double Monopoly and a list of the Top 11 Monopoly Player Tokens are very popular.
♦ According to Gatherer – When I first started writing on this blog, I wanted to keep Magic: the Gathering talk to a minimum. You can read about Magic all over the web, but a good indie game review is hard to come by. Then I posted an article on Magic and it did really well. So I posted another one, and it did really well. You get the idea. It pays the bills. That said, The 10 Most Desirable Cards According to Gatherer is a good article, and it’s brother and sister The 10 Most Detestible Cards and 10 Most Awesome Legendary Creatures make fine reading.
♦ Dungeons and Dragons: The Random Dungeon – My first large project on this blog was to make a list of Random Encounters for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition using the Monster Manual, since there wasn’t any, as far as I could tell. With that finished, I planned to expand this to an html run random dungeon. I’ve been hesitant to continue, though, since I’ve heard the Wizards staff might add a random dungeon chart for their upcoming fifth edition. I’m holding out to see what happens. In the meantime, The Random Dungeon Room Negative One, and Room Zero make for a good launching ground, dealing with the environment outside your dungeon, and the first room your players encounter, respectively.
♦ Two Books – Two Books started by accident. I reviewed two books and adjoined them in one post. Later, I realized I could have done a better job weaving both book reviews together, spiraling out from a common theme. Subsequent Two Books have taken that tactic. If you’re interested, I’d point to Mockingjay and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Tale of Sand and The League of Extraordianary Gentlemen – Century 1910, or Flatland and Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman. Writing a book review that opposes itself is difficult, but I find the end result is rewarding.
♦ DC Adventures Log – In December of 2011, I was enchanted with the new DC Adventures Role-Playing Game, so Lex Luthor invited a group of heros and villains to join Team Lex. Progress in that game has been slow. That’s not the game’s fault… the DC Universe is a great leaping off point for a story heavy roleplaying game, and a story heavy roleplaying game requires… a story. The demands of requiring a plot meant we averaged around one game every month and a half. The group enjoyed DC Adventures, but never took to it. The game’s main fault is one of its strongest pulls. It’s so easy to pick up a character and play that you have little incentive to make your own character and learn the system. I’m sure we’ll revisit either DC Adventures, or another Superhero game in the future. In the meantime, if you’re interested in Team Lex and how they’re story developed, I’d suggest hopping back to Log One: Meet Team Lex.
♦ Opinions, Unasked For is a catch-all for when I want to rail about something. That said, there’s a few good rants in there. A number of people responded positively to Step Right Up! Guess the Writer’s Gender and Win a Giant Teddy Bear! Maybe you will, too.
I’ve got more ideas on the way, but it’s likely you’re reading this in the future when those projects are complete. Take your time and poke through the site. See what you like. I’ll be out back, playing Rock Band 3 and wondering when Harmonix will stop riding the Dance Central gravy train and make a damn Rock Band 4.
