Since comic based movies have become bigger than anyone in Hollywood could have ever predicted. I wanted to talk about a rumor floating around regarding Iron Man 2
Emily Blunt (Devil Wears Prada) is rumored to be playing Black Widow
Mickey Rourke would play a tattooed Russian heavy named Ivan who becomes Whiplash, a man with deadly, technologically enhanced coils.
Rockwell would play Justin Hammer, a multibillionaire businessman and a rival of industrialist Anthony Stark.
It is also rumored that negotiations with Samel L. Jackson have fallen through for him to play Nick Fury.
I don't envy the directors, writers, and actors of Iron Man 2. They may have the toughest gig in Hollywood. They now have to somehow create a movie better than the one they already created which is going to be no easy task. They set the bar pretty high for themselves. One word of caution for them. Adding tons of villians is not the answer, look at how much it ruined the latest Spiderman movie.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Guest Poster
I wanted to thank The Geek Gazette for allowing me to guest post once in a while on his blog. We have been friends now for several years are hope to in the near future collaborate on a couple of projects.
I am big into movies having just watched Gran Tarino over the weekend. All I can say is Clint Eastwood is the man, even if he is almost 80. He pulls no punches in this film and is the heroic character that we have come to expect from him. If you want to see more of my thoughts on movies check out my website www.thenutgallery.com
My other loves are rpgs, video games, comics, and wow. Rpg's right now I am in a Deadlands campaign using the Savage World rules. I am playing a straight up shooter that has roots with the Texas Rangers. The DM is a first time DM but he is very good. He has studied the rules and is very good at running things on the fly. Anyone who has ever DM'd knows that very little goes the way you think it will and thinking on your feet is very important.
Video games from last year that I played the most were NCAA Football and Lego Indiana Jones. Yes the Lego game is awesome and I don't care what anyone says. Did I mention I almost killed my brother over it. The (insert nasty word here) deleted my saved game and I only had one board left.
Finally I do play World of Warcraft. I have a lvl 66 Death Knight as my highest character. I can't wait to get him to 70 so I can enjoy the new areas of the game that came out with the expansion.
There you have my introduction in a nutshell.
I am big into movies having just watched Gran Tarino over the weekend. All I can say is Clint Eastwood is the man, even if he is almost 80. He pulls no punches in this film and is the heroic character that we have come to expect from him. If you want to see more of my thoughts on movies check out my website www.thenutgallery.com
My other loves are rpgs, video games, comics, and wow. Rpg's right now I am in a Deadlands campaign using the Savage World rules. I am playing a straight up shooter that has roots with the Texas Rangers. The DM is a first time DM but he is very good. He has studied the rules and is very good at running things on the fly. Anyone who has ever DM'd knows that very little goes the way you think it will and thinking on your feet is very important.
Video games from last year that I played the most were NCAA Football and Lego Indiana Jones. Yes the Lego game is awesome and I don't care what anyone says. Did I mention I almost killed my brother over it. The (insert nasty word here) deleted my saved game and I only had one board left.
Finally I do play World of Warcraft. I have a lvl 66 Death Knight as my highest character. I can't wait to get him to 70 so I can enjoy the new areas of the game that came out with the expansion.
There you have my introduction in a nutshell.
Monday, January 12, 2009
You play too much D&D if…
Over the years I've seen this around the net several times, but a friend recently emailed it to me so I thought I would share. I have to admit to actually doing or knowing people who do/have done some of the things on the list. I'm particularly guilty of #'s 6(I don't do it every time, but have done it), 10, 16, 21(have done, but not regularly), 22 (though they call them my geek shirts because they aren't all about D&D), the rest of the list fits for the most part but some are common to most D&D players... or so I tell myself.
You play too much D&D if…
1. You see the following headline: “Abberration Splits Dog's Left Leg in Two” and wonder who let the illithids out to play.
2. You automatically attack someone when they pass through your threatened space
3. There is no such thing as too much D&D.
4. Most of the arguments you have with your S.O. involve things between your characters.
"You know I wanted that sword, but you took it. I can't believe you! You're sleeping under the stars tonight, get out of the tent!"
5. You wonder out loud during the movie whether Conan has more fighter or barbarian levels or what kind of enchantments Li Mu-bai's Green Destiny has.
6. You say +1 every time someone says something you really like.
7. Every time you pass by a gas station sign stating the price of gas you "attempt to disbelieve"...I always fail my will save
8. Every time someone mentions 'Santa's Elves' you correct them: 'technically, those are dwarves, or maybe even gnomes.'
9. You think that during the creation of the European Union and the Euro, Europe screwed up the chance to change their currency to the GP standard.
10. You love hobbits and hate kender - and know the difference.
11. You are driving on a State Road and think, "Wow, that's a high SR"
12. When you dream of hiring a Drow Raiding party to "deal" with every person who has ever wronged you in your life.
13. When you are watching Kung Fu the TV series and you say out loud, "Kane is definitely Lawful Good." and nobody knows what you are talking about.
14. When you watch Lord of the Rings and try to list each feat and skill levels of the members of the Fellowship.
15. When your ultimate fantasy is to have your wife/girlfriend dress up like Red Sonja.
16. You get offended when people make fun of the game and/or its players.
17. You set your monitor on fire to kill a forum troll.
18. You think Boeing should name their planes Astral, Celestial, Ethereal, etc instead of using numerical designation.
19. After you get a girl's phone number she immediately takes it back once you mention her failed Sense Motive check.
20. You have an irrational fear of rainbows.
21. When you see someone succeed, you bust out with a "they must have rolled a natural 20,eh?".
22. When you dress up for a meeting at work, your coworkers ask “What happened to your D&D shirts?”
23. When your ultimate fantasy is to have your husband/boyfriend dress up like Red Sonja.
24. You once hurt your back moving your D&D supplies to a different shelf. (done this)
25. You reorganize the D&D section at the book store because you think Complete Champion shouldn’t go next to Book of Vile Darkness. (done this)
26. You get into an argument and you take out your dice to make an intimidation check.
27. You call 5 ft 1 square
28. When you get confused while watching The Lord of the Rings and you see Gandalf wielding a sword.
29. "I am a level 20 Sorceror/Rogue" is actually not am empty threat to you
30. i'm not a nerd, i'm a level 8 dragon disciple
31. You don't get more dates even with an "18" charisma
32. When meeting new people, you ask what their THAC0 is.
33. When you hit another car you roll to determine the damage
34. You don't believe that you *can* play too much Dungeons and Dragons.
35. At work you wield a +4 "mop of scrubitude"
36. You can accurately describe all 7 effects of Prismatic Spray
37. You roll a d20 to see if you can eat breakfast
38. you've ever been attracted to your own character
39. you carry 20-side dice in your pocket
40. You watch an action movie and think "I wonder what was the d20 roll for that".
41. You *think* in Elvish
42. You argue with your friends and say "I cast Lv 15 STFU on you paladin!"
43. You know WHY Legolas can walk on snow.
44. Any exposure to sunlight gives sunburn
45. You automatically speak in third person
46. You have something made of 'mirthral' in your wardrobe
47. a 20-side dice is among your arsenal of weapons
48. All hail the almighty DM
49. you know what the 'draconomicon' is
50. You only move as far as the dice tell you
51. You have a D&D tattoo
52. You get really pissed because you can't have an illithid character
53. You go on blind dates acting uppity because you KNOW she's not even a level 1
54. You call it Dungeons and Dragons instead of D+D.
55. You hang out with the Keepers
56. Your secret pouch of spells is filled with urine.
57. You make a list of signs that you play too much Dungeons and Dragons.
You play too much D&D if…
1. You see the following headline: “Abberration Splits Dog's Left Leg in Two” and wonder who let the illithids out to play.
2. You automatically attack someone when they pass through your threatened space
3. There is no such thing as too much D&D.
4. Most of the arguments you have with your S.O. involve things between your characters.
"You know I wanted that sword, but you took it. I can't believe you! You're sleeping under the stars tonight, get out of the tent!"
5. You wonder out loud during the movie whether Conan has more fighter or barbarian levels or what kind of enchantments Li Mu-bai's Green Destiny has.
6. You say +1 every time someone says something you really like.
7. Every time you pass by a gas station sign stating the price of gas you "attempt to disbelieve"...I always fail my will save
8. Every time someone mentions 'Santa's Elves' you correct them: 'technically, those are dwarves, or maybe even gnomes.'
9. You think that during the creation of the European Union and the Euro, Europe screwed up the chance to change their currency to the GP standard.
10. You love hobbits and hate kender - and know the difference.
11. You are driving on a State Road and think, "Wow, that's a high SR"
12. When you dream of hiring a Drow Raiding party to "deal" with every person who has ever wronged you in your life.
13. When you are watching Kung Fu the TV series and you say out loud, "Kane is definitely Lawful Good." and nobody knows what you are talking about.
14. When you watch Lord of the Rings and try to list each feat and skill levels of the members of the Fellowship.
15. When your ultimate fantasy is to have your wife/girlfriend dress up like Red Sonja.
16. You get offended when people make fun of the game and/or its players.
17. You set your monitor on fire to kill a forum troll.
18. You think Boeing should name their planes Astral, Celestial, Ethereal, etc instead of using numerical designation.
19. After you get a girl's phone number she immediately takes it back once you mention her failed Sense Motive check.
20. You have an irrational fear of rainbows.
21. When you see someone succeed, you bust out with a "they must have rolled a natural 20,eh?".
22. When you dress up for a meeting at work, your coworkers ask “What happened to your D&D shirts?”
23. When your ultimate fantasy is to have your husband/boyfriend dress up like Red Sonja.
24. You once hurt your back moving your D&D supplies to a different shelf. (done this)
25. You reorganize the D&D section at the book store because you think Complete Champion shouldn’t go next to Book of Vile Darkness. (done this)
26. You get into an argument and you take out your dice to make an intimidation check.
27. You call 5 ft 1 square
28. When you get confused while watching The Lord of the Rings and you see Gandalf wielding a sword.
29. "I am a level 20 Sorceror/Rogue" is actually not am empty threat to you
30. i'm not a nerd, i'm a level 8 dragon disciple
31. You don't get more dates even with an "18" charisma
32. When meeting new people, you ask what their THAC0 is.
33. When you hit another car you roll to determine the damage
34. You don't believe that you *can* play too much Dungeons and Dragons.
35. At work you wield a +4 "mop of scrubitude"
36. You can accurately describe all 7 effects of Prismatic Spray
37. You roll a d20 to see if you can eat breakfast
38. you've ever been attracted to your own character
39. you carry 20-side dice in your pocket
40. You watch an action movie and think "I wonder what was the d20 roll for that".
41. You *think* in Elvish
42. You argue with your friends and say "I cast Lv 15 STFU on you paladin!"
43. You know WHY Legolas can walk on snow.
44. Any exposure to sunlight gives sunburn
45. You automatically speak in third person
46. You have something made of 'mirthral' in your wardrobe
47. a 20-side dice is among your arsenal of weapons
48. All hail the almighty DM
49. you know what the 'draconomicon' is
50. You only move as far as the dice tell you
51. You have a D&D tattoo
52. You get really pissed because you can't have an illithid character
53. You go on blind dates acting uppity because you KNOW she's not even a level 1
54. You call it Dungeons and Dragons instead of D+D.
55. You hang out with the Keepers
56. Your secret pouch of spells is filled with urine.
57. You make a list of signs that you play too much Dungeons and Dragons.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
I did it! No D&D for me...
With the exception mentioned in my last post, I managed to go through the holidays D&D free and my plan worked. I have found that my little bout of RPG abstinence has left me with a renewed interest in not only D&D, 4e in particular, but gaming in general.
I have campaign ideas seeping out my ears, I can't write them down fast enough. I also have been energized and can't wait to set up a D&D, Hollow Earth Expedition, Dead Reign or Serenity/BSG game. I don't think that it was just the lack of gaming that recharged my batteries, but what I did during my time off. What did I do? Well with the exception of spending a lot of time on my PSP (see previous post) I read some books, surfed the net and watched some movies, all of which I think were contributing factors.
First let's start with the books.
"Hollow Earth: The long and curious history of imagining strand lands, fantstical creatures, advanced civilizations and marvelous machins below the earth's surface" by David Standish and while the title may be long the book itself is just about 300 pages and a pretty quick read. It tells the story of where the idea of hollow earth came from, the real life people who believed in it and tried to find it, what people believed they would find there, as well as the stories written about it. It is a very interesting book which inspired me to do some googling to learn more. The hollow earth is a topic overflowing with gaming potential and I can't wait to get into it.
"World War Z" by Max Brooks is another book I managed to finally finish during this time which has me itching to run Dead Reign or throw a bunch of zombies in my next D&D game. If only they had the Necromancer class up and running.
"Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth" by Max McCoy is the book I'm reading now which is only feeding my desire to run a hollow earth/pulp game. I can't wait to put some PCs up against Nazis in the center of the earth.
Dreseden Files by Jim Butcher, I actually read two more Dresden novels during this time and am eagerly awaiting the release of the the RPG.
I also managed to fit in a Forgotten Realms novel, Mistshore, and have recently gone back to reread the Campaing Setting so guess where my next D&D game is going to take place.
Next are the movies, most of which were directly linked to the books I was reading in some manner. I watched several Zombie movies, Dagon, Call of Cthulhu, all the Mummy movies (#3 was not my favorite BTW), all of the Indiana Jones movies, Serenity, past seasons of BSG, Tombstone (I'm your Huckleberry), and all six Star Wars during this time.
Between the books, the great blogs on RPGBN, and movies I actually had time to enjoy gaming. I know that sounds weird given that I didn't do any, but it did help. I think it was the fact I was able to step back and just be a geek, a fan and not have to worry about coming up with any content. I didn't do many posts on the Gazette so I was able to just be a fanboy for a while. I didn't even do more than an handful of posts on the various RPG forums. I just blocked out all the bad and concentrated on the fun parts of being a gaming geek. The things that attracted me to gaming in the first place.
This may not work for everyone, but I have to say that taking a break worked wonders for me. I'm more jazzed about everything, including 4e, than I have been in a long time. I've also managed to decide on which systems I want to run regularly, a dilema that has plagued me for a while now. For the forseeable future the primary game systems will be D&D 4e, Serenity/BSG, Mutants & Masterminds, Dead Reign and Hollow Earth Expedition. I realized that I spend so much time trying to find systems that had the things I wanted I was overwhelming myself with games. Granted many were very good, but these are the ones I think that offer everything I want to do. I plan to cut back all my gaming purchases to just these systems/games, which I realized cover nearly everything I could want to run. Well maybe with the exception of Dresden Files when it comes out, but that's it.
It's good to be back.
Also I would like to mention the great reviews done by Kurt Wiegel, nearly all of which I have watched over the past month. If you haven't checked out his vidoes on YouTube you definitely should. The reviews are great and give you just about everything you need to know about the games he covers before buying.
I have campaign ideas seeping out my ears, I can't write them down fast enough. I also have been energized and can't wait to set up a D&D, Hollow Earth Expedition, Dead Reign or Serenity/BSG game. I don't think that it was just the lack of gaming that recharged my batteries, but what I did during my time off. What did I do? Well with the exception of spending a lot of time on my PSP (see previous post) I read some books, surfed the net and watched some movies, all of which I think were contributing factors.
First let's start with the books.
"Hollow Earth: The long and curious history of imagining strand lands, fantstical creatures, advanced civilizations and marvelous machins below the earth's surface" by David Standish and while the title may be long the book itself is just about 300 pages and a pretty quick read. It tells the story of where the idea of hollow earth came from, the real life people who believed in it and tried to find it, what people believed they would find there, as well as the stories written about it. It is a very interesting book which inspired me to do some googling to learn more. The hollow earth is a topic overflowing with gaming potential and I can't wait to get into it.
"World War Z" by Max Brooks is another book I managed to finally finish during this time which has me itching to run Dead Reign or throw a bunch of zombies in my next D&D game. If only they had the Necromancer class up and running.
"Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth" by Max McCoy is the book I'm reading now which is only feeding my desire to run a hollow earth/pulp game. I can't wait to put some PCs up against Nazis in the center of the earth.
Dreseden Files by Jim Butcher, I actually read two more Dresden novels during this time and am eagerly awaiting the release of the the RPG.
I also managed to fit in a Forgotten Realms novel, Mistshore, and have recently gone back to reread the Campaing Setting so guess where my next D&D game is going to take place.
Next are the movies, most of which were directly linked to the books I was reading in some manner. I watched several Zombie movies, Dagon, Call of Cthulhu, all the Mummy movies (#3 was not my favorite BTW), all of the Indiana Jones movies, Serenity, past seasons of BSG, Tombstone (I'm your Huckleberry), and all six Star Wars during this time.
Between the books, the great blogs on RPGBN, and movies I actually had time to enjoy gaming. I know that sounds weird given that I didn't do any, but it did help. I think it was the fact I was able to step back and just be a geek, a fan and not have to worry about coming up with any content. I didn't do many posts on the Gazette so I was able to just be a fanboy for a while. I didn't even do more than an handful of posts on the various RPG forums. I just blocked out all the bad and concentrated on the fun parts of being a gaming geek. The things that attracted me to gaming in the first place.
This may not work for everyone, but I have to say that taking a break worked wonders for me. I'm more jazzed about everything, including 4e, than I have been in a long time. I've also managed to decide on which systems I want to run regularly, a dilema that has plagued me for a while now. For the forseeable future the primary game systems will be D&D 4e, Serenity/BSG, Mutants & Masterminds, Dead Reign and Hollow Earth Expedition. I realized that I spend so much time trying to find systems that had the things I wanted I was overwhelming myself with games. Granted many were very good, but these are the ones I think that offer everything I want to do. I plan to cut back all my gaming purchases to just these systems/games, which I realized cover nearly everything I could want to run. Well maybe with the exception of Dresden Files when it comes out, but that's it.
It's good to be back.
Also I would like to mention the great reviews done by Kurt Wiegel, nearly all of which I have watched over the past month. If you haven't checked out his vidoes on YouTube you definitely should. The reviews are great and give you just about everything you need to know about the games he covers before buying.
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