Here then are five ways to end a fight before the battlefield is drenched in the blood of one side or another. You can use these ways to keep a battle short, or to offer an alternative to simple one-sided destruction.

A Fight to First Blood

If the PCs are facing honorable foes, or are fighting in a tournament, they may choose to fight to “first blood”, and I’m not referencing any cheesy 80s action films. In 4E D&D, this is an easy concept: have the players and NPCs agree to fight until someone hits their Bloodied value, and use this as the threshold of when someone finally draws blood on the other.

This has a lot of basis in reality. Knights at tournament wanted to show their prowess at real battle, and first blood was a way to show one’s skill, but to avoid seriously injuring one’s foe. Likewise, a duel that was serious but didn’t need to be to the death would sometimes be fought to first blood. This served as a grim reminder to the wounded – I bloodied you once. Next time might be more fatal.

Holding Out Like a Hero

This is a particular favorite of mine. In it, the PCs aren’t necessarily planning on winning a fight, but only of surviving and holding off foes until a set goal is reached. This is particularly effective for when the king can get to safety if his loyal knights can last ten rounds of combat, or if a wizard needs them to hold until he gets six successes on Arcana checks. Combined with Skill Challenges, this can make for a memorable sequence. Skeletons will keep pouring out of the crypt until the cleric successfully re-consecrates it as a skill challenge of minor actions, or the room will keep filling with water that’s inhabited with shrieking eels until the rogue resets the trap mechanism. It’s up to the party to hold off the skeletons, eels, or what have you.

You can use this device to simulate a scene like Helm’s Deep. The PCs have to hold out a certain number of rounds until the reinforcements arrive. Especially in combination with an ever-increasing number of minions, this can give the proper feeling of literally holding off an army.

Cutting Off the Head

The orcish army feels unbeatable until their leader, Gruzhgarn, is slain. When the necromancer is killed, the undead crumble back to lifeless husks. The wolves will flee in dismay if their alpha is killed. If you make one or more of the enemies the linchpin holding the rest of the monsters together, then you can give the PCs a goal other than simply slaying every monster on the battlefield. Once the leader-type monster goes down, the rest will surrender, flee, return to their home plane, etc. I especially like the feeling of “kill the wizard and his minions will return to the Elemental Plane.” It’s something that makes a logical sort of story sense, and it gives an out to the players.

A variation on this is “this monster is invulnerable until condition X is met.” In my current campaign, a great example was Auntie Mengybone, whom I’ve mentioned in other columns. She was harnessing the life-force of a captive Arch Fey to constantly heal herself, making her effectively invulnerable. Several of the PCs with Controller-type powers kept her busy and away from the other PCs who were freeing the Arch Fey through a skill challenge. Once the Arch Fey was released, she immediately went into retreat mode, leaving her minions to fight the PCs. She didn’t escape, but, if she had, she would’ve likely become a recurring villain in the campaign.

Live to Fight Another Day

There’s an adage that most PCs would rather have their character killed than have them captured. I’m not sure what the psychology around this is, but I agree that it’s true. That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to have your monsters behave the same way.

I befuddled my players in my Eberron campaign by having the changeling villain they’d been fighting step back, go defensive, and offer to surrender, but only if the Lawful Good character promised him mercy. The party was immediately suspicious, but they reluctantly agreed. This let me draw a fight that was already a foregone conclusion to a quick close and keep a valuable NPC alive for a future sequence. And when the PCs found out later that he’d escaped the prisons of their patrons, they cursed his name – darned, tricksy changelings!

The other trick is to have monsters flee. They might be running for reinforcements, or they might be running for their lives, but sometimes monsters, especially intelligent ones, might choose to abandon a fight that they’re clearly losing. Earlier editions of D&D had complex Morale check systems to help a DM determine whether or not a monster would fight on or drop their weapons, but, nowadays, story is the arbiter of such a decision.

Stop. Just Stop.

I would never suggest that you should declare a fight against the PCs and tell them they’re all dead. But good news! Your monsters don’t have any ego beyond that which you invest in them. If you’re down to two half-dead orcs, everything else is dead, and the PCs are still in excellent shape, you can call that fight. Sure, the orcs might do a little more damage, but is it really necessary to eke every hit point from the player characters that you can? I think not.

Some DMs, and some players, don’t like this approach. They want to know exactly who did what, who killed whom, and noodle the fight down to each hit point. That’s not my style of game play. If it’s getting late, and I have an important plot point to make before game ends, and this fight is slowing me down, I’ll sometimes call a fight once it’s clear how unlikely it is that the PCs will lose. “Well, the ogre has 15 hit points, and you’re all going to get to attack before he does. Unless you really want to know who kills the ogre specifically, let’s call it. Someone describe for me how the ogre dies.” My players were baffled the first time I did this, but they’ve come to appreciate it.

In Closing

Not every fight has to be fought to the last HP. Sometimes, there are reasons why a fight should end early, and sometimes it’s just more convenient to move things along rather than dither down to the bitter end. Using this tool, you can make battles more about the story and excitement and less about drudging down to the last hit point.

Your Turn

Do you have any tricks for ending a fight early? Do you think my choices are good ones, or way off-base? Let us all know!

Always/Never/Now

You were the best. Underground, cyberpunk street samurai, burglars and breakers, agents of a mysterious spymaster with half a name, zero history, and a plan. He made the missions and you carried them out. You were the go-to crew for high-stakes break-in, dangerous ops, and impossible escapes. You fought the megacorps, the tyrants, the killers—all for the sake of making a better future, of beating the Technocrats at their own game of shaping tomorrow. You always won, never quit, lived in the now. 

Until, eleven years ago, he disappeared…

Now he’s back—back in trouble—and it’s up to you to save him and maybe, along the way, change the world.

Last year, I backed Will Hindmarch‘s Always/Never/Now Kickstarter, eager to see the game  in the wild once it was ready to fly.

This Monday, A/N/N/ hit the mean streets of the internet. You can download it for the price of free, free you fools, so you‘ve got zip for reasons to skip this luminous techno lick of future summer spycraft. Unless you don’t like luminous techno brain candy, in which case, it’s cool if you skip it, just tell your buddies who would dig it about where to find it. For further A/N/N goodies, you can hit the tumblr. You can also nose around Hindmarch’s delicate cyber-typographical nest for other A/N/N wisdom.

Dangerous Games: How to Play

Once a year, the greatest tabletop gamers in the world descend upon Indianapolis for Gen Con — the Best Four Days in Gaming — to play games, see friends, and have fun. They play things like Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, Warhammer 40,000, Settlers of Catan, Munchkin, and everything else they can get their hands on. Mostly the competition is friendly.

Sometimes it is not.

When a world-famous game designer turns up murdered at the convention, Liam Parker — the young game designer who stumbles across the body — makes it his quest to figure out who killed the man, and why. In the end, Liam must figure out the rules of this most dangerous game fast — or risk losing his life.

If you missed out on the 12 for ’12 Kickstarter sequence Matt Forbeck did last year, never fear! You can buy Dangerous Games: How to Play and other fine Kickstarter novels of Forbeck’s over on his site. But if you dig mysteries and love GenCon, Dangerous Games is going to coax a fiver from your wallet. Then, it’s going to keep you turning pages all night. I love mysteries, I love GenCon, and I love supporting great writers. It’s a great book and a fast read, but if you’ve ever been to GenCon, it adds a little something to the reading experience. Indy is a weird, liminal place when it hosts GenCon. Designer Liam Parker’s high-risk, murder filled GenCon captured a lot of the perpetual bewilderment I felt my first GenCon. I spent most of my time reading shouting to my roommates “You would not BELIEVE what someone just said at the DJAs in here!”

Minus the murder, it felt a lot like going to GenCon. So pony up $4.99 and take a trip to Indy a few months early. You can even check out the first few chapters for free.

Indie RPG Awards

  The Indie RPG Awards were started back in 2002 to celebrate and recognize the drive and passion of the Role-Playing Game designers who wrote and published their works themselves, with minimal (if any) outside financial or labor support. These “Indie” RPGs are often hard to find. When published in print, game stores often don’t see them unless they are special-ordered. Often, these designers have to rely on, in part or entirely, the Internet to make their works known, or even to sell them if they are published electronically. They often slip under the radar of mainstream awards like the ORIGINS awards, Pen&Paper Awards, Ennies Awards, and many other awards that are based on popular vote.

If you feel like you didn’t catch all the 2012 indie releases, the list of games you can find at the Indie RPG Awards site is going to be your golden ticket to gaming joy. If you’re unfamiliar with the awards, they’ve got you covered with a FAQ. The results of their voting will be presented during GenCon, with the results going up on the site shortly after.

Got some RPG news about a project you’re following? Want to chat with me about a game you’re releasing? Need to shout to the heavens that you have found the best damn product of the summer? You can find me on Twitter!

…Unless you didn’t have to wait.  On Sunday, I woke up to this on my Facebook feed, via the Doctor Who page from BBCWorldwide:

We understand that a small number of US fans have received in error their DVD edition of Series 7 Part 2 early. We respectfully ask those fans not to divulge information or post content publicly so that fellow fans who have yet to see the episodes do not have their viewing pleasure ruined.

If everyone keeps the secrets safe until next Saturday we will release a special new clip featuring material of the Tenth AND Eleventh Doctor!

Well!  Keeping everything spoiler-free seemed like an impossible task, similar to when Ricky Gervais promises Twitter he’ll donate thousands of pounds to charity if no one replies or retweets him (dozens of people do, every single time).  Even though I don’t actively seek out spoilers, I wouldn’t have closed my eyes if the entire episode had wound up before me (picture Amy Pond watching the Doctor change in “Eleventh Hour”).  The Internet promised to be very interesting that day.

…Except, it wasn’t.  While there were stills and video of one man, who showed off the cover and blu-ray disc, that was it.  Just the one man.

Well, it was a Sunday, and it was possible that his mail had come exceptionally early, earlier that weekend.  If a shipment of discs had been sent out prematurely, surely on Monday we’d see things popping up all over the place – not spoilers or leaked copies, necessarily, but more people waving their early copies and grinning like fools.  Well, I know that’s what I would have done, anyway.

As I write this, on Tuesday, to the best of my knowledge there’s still only one person out there with photographic proof that he’s got an early Blu-Ray.  Three days, a public announcement from BBC, and pictures from only one person of the outside of a box.

So, the question becomes, is this a real leak at all?   Is it possible that the Internet is just full of people who really, really want that bonus material?   Here’s the evidence for and against:

Pro

It’s possible the “leak” is real.  The one guy who has the blu-ray has stated that BBCA actually called him at his house – presumably, calling everyone else with an early copy as well – to personally ask that nothing be leaked.   Imagining that a small number of people preordered from BBCA’s shop, and then a much, much smaller number got sent out early, and those people got personal calls – well, it’s possible that they might all keep their traps shut, right?  Or maybe they saw all the abuse this guy is getting for not uploading the episode and it scared them off.

Others have claimed that they’ve heard from various BBCA people – ranging from “contacts” to customer service representatives – that the leak is indeed real.

Con

The thing that gets me, though, is the utter lack of anyone else with a copy of this thing.  It’s possible that everyone who received copies early is onboard with not spoiling anything, sure, whether it’s because they’re stand-up citizens or afraid that the BBC will track them as the source.  Or even narrow it down more – only a small percentage have the knowledge and capability to rip blu-rays even if they wanted to.  But why aren’t there more people like Untempered*Schism and his tumblr – spoiler-free people showing off?  Where are the badly filtered Instagram pictures?

Whatever the truth of the situation is, there’s definitely tons of false information out there.  ”Spoilers” abound, ripped from fan fiction, or apparently previously revealed; I imagine there’s more than a fair number of viruses floating around in the seedier parts of the internet as well.   Again, to the best of my knowledge there’s no legitimate content leaked out there; no clue on the spoilers as I tend to close my eyes and apply the brain bleach (and who will know, anyway, until it airs?).

If it is some kind of PR stunt, I’m not certain what the point of it would be; most of the people who care are just irritated that there’s a possibility it could be watched early.  I know I’ve certainly thought about the episode much more this week than I normally would have – but in an itchy rash sort of way.  On the other hand, perhaps all this furor has filtered out into the mainstream, stirring up anticipation for the episode.  It may be as simple as that.

If the early delivery is real, here’s a mini bit of Who History for you: back before the 1983 25th Anniversary Special, “The Five Doctors,” aired, the novelization of the episode accidentally hit some stores up to a few weeks before broadcast.   So perhaps it’s all as simple as a little bit of history repeating.

What about you?  What do you think of this “impossible leak”?  Are you waiting for the finale, or are you hunting down spoilers?

Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel both feature iconic properties of their respective comic book companies. Each features a character with some level of proven box office draw. Each wants to be the summer blockbuster. But who’s going to end up on top? I thought I would offer my own feelings on the subject. I will preface this by saying that I haven’t seen either one yet. I’ve had time commitments that have kept me away from IM3 and MoS is still on the horizon. These are merely my speculations.

Utterly Different Tones

The Iron Man movies did something really spectacular; they took a character I really couldn’t have cared less about and made me a fan. I used to read Marvel comics, but, even at the heyday of my interest, Iron Man just wasn’t a character I was that into. Tony Stark didn’t seem that interesting to me, despite the twists and turns his superhero career has taken.

The movie franchise, however, gave us a fantastic character, brought to life through some amazing writing and the incredible acting chops of Robert Downey Jr. The character and the actor are almost a perfect match for each other, and Downey owns Tony Stark. This version of Tony Stark is just so damned funny! That’s what made me want to like him, root for him, and go to his movies.

While I haven’t seen anything but the previews for MoS, I can tell that the tone is going to be much more serious. There aren’t a lot of jokes in any of the previews we’ve seen so far. I’m okay with that; Superman isn’t normally a joke-a-minute character, especially when he’s going up against a world-threatening villain in the vein of General Zod. He does have a slightly wry sense of humor, however, and I hope that comes across in the new film.

Box Office Champions

In its day, the original Superman: the Movie was an enormous hit. It spawned toys, sequels, and legions of Superman fans. Superman II followed up well, giving most audiences their first experience with General Zod and giving the villain a tagline that lingers to this day. “Kneel before Zod!”

Sadly, the producers proceeded to give us two more Superman movies that were utterly dreadful. And a Supergirl movie that was as painful as those, if not more so. When they tried to reboot the franchise with Superman Returns, it didn’t work. Personally, I loved the film, but a lot of people just couldn’t relate to it. The attempt to bring back the franchise as if nothing had happened and everyone had seen the original was a failure. MoS may be at a slight disadvantage as a result of that.

Iron Man 3 is a movie poised to succeed. The first two films were fantastic, and Avengers was pretty much the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen. They’d have to really cheap out and lame up IM3 in order to fail, and, from what I hear, that didn’t happen. IM3 is already a mega-success, setting a high bar for MoS to try and match.

Beloved Characters

Both the Superman and Iron Man franchises have characters we love, and those we love to hate. Both of the films this year feature some of the best known villains of their respective comics and some pretty amazing actors.

IM3 features the Mandarin. I was shocked they didn’t bring him out in the first movie, but I understand why the Ironmonger was a better choice, given the story they wanted to tell. I can’t wait to see how Sir Ben Kingsley portrays him, what his connection to the Ten Rings terrorist group from the first movie might be, and so on. Beyond Sir Ben, we have the usual suspects back in action. I’ve already said how amazing Robert Downey Jr. is, but Gwyneth Paltrow is pretty fantastic herself.

Superman’s franchise has plenty of beloved characters. Of course, as readers of my column know, Superman is my favorite superhero, so I’m eager to see how Henry Cavill portrays him. I didn’t watch The Tudors, but I hear he’s pretty brilliant in it. I also don’t know Michael Shannon very well, but he looks pretty intimidating as General Zod, so I’m open to the idea. Lawrence Fishburne is Perry White, and I know he’ll be great.

But for me, the casting news I was waiting for, almost more even than Kal-El, was Lois Lane. As great as Christopher Reeve was as Superman, Margot Kidder was every bit as great as Lois, and their chemistry is part of what made the original movie. To my delight, Amy Adams, one of my absolute favorite actresses working, snagged this crucial role. Part of what didn’t work for me about Superman Returns was a rather lackluster performance (IMHO, of course) by Kate Bosworth. Her Lois needed to be as tough, if not tougher, than Margot Kidder’s Lois, and I just didn’t feel she played the character that way. I have every confidence that Amy Adams can make Lois tough when she needs to be tough and vulnerable when she needs to be vulnerable.

Word of Mouth

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, gentle readers, that IM3 has fantastic word of mouth. I’ve been hearing it and threatening to pummel my friends if they spoil anything for me. But I do know that apparently I have to sit through the credits again. I’m amenable to that. If it’s a set-up for an Avengers 2, I’m more than ready to see it.

What you might not know is that I’ve heard some quotes from someone who has apparently seen some rough cuts of MoS. Without getting too specific, phrases like “Masterpiece”, “Equal to Dark Knight”, and “Breakout Performance” got bandied around. I’m trying to keep calm and carry on, but, honestly, I’m counting the days.

In Closing

Both of these movies are ones I’m excited to see, but I’m sure it’s no shock to you that Man of Steel is the one I’m more excited for. I’m just a much bigger Superman fan than I am an Iron Man fan. Time will tell which ends up being the most successful and popular movie. Either way, there’s going to be a lot of popcorn eaten this summer.

Your Turn

Have you seen Iron Man 3? Tell us what you thought! (But no spoilers, please. I do read the comments on my articles, and I still haven’t seen the movie!) Are you excited for Man of Steel? Let us all know.

Also, a quick note: I will note if I receive anything free from a publisher. If not, I paid for it just like anyone else! If someone wants to send me free stuff, I’ll read it, and if it’s one of the best things I read, I’ll tell everyone about it! But that’s not the general mode of this column; the only bias is my own tastes.

Now onto the comics!

Star Trek #20

This issue mostly focuses on Hikaru Sulu’s days at the Academy. I’m loving these backstory issues – maybe the history of these characters has been fleshed out before in the hundreds of novels and comics before, but coming from just the TV show and the J.J. Abrams movie, it’s really nice to see where some of these characters are coming from.

Sulu’s a cadet who is being recruited by the secretive and elite Red Squad (who later would go on to have a similar experience with Wesley Crusher.) Sulu remarks that this is his fast track to Captain, and if he doesn’t make it he’ll be stuck behind the helm for years. So, it’s not exactly a secret how it will turn out, but it’s the way it unfolds that paints a strong picture of him as a principled, honorable, and brave young man. He’s in many ways more of a hero than Kirk ever could be.

Also in this issue in a lesser degree is cadet Chekov. He’s young and very nerdy and not very wise. He’s got some delightful Chess posters on his wall, which Kirk can’t help but comment on. We find that Chekov had a role to play in Kirk’s infamous Kobiyashi Maru manouver. For Checkov, this isn’t as defining of an issue, but it’s nice to see his path and Sulu’s intersect before Enterprise.

Star Wars #5

This is always what I’ve wanted from my Star Wars. Han and Chewie, Luke and Leia, having adventures. My inner eight year old is fully satisfied.

And my outer 30-something-year-old is pretty happy too. These are good stories.

Most of the issue focuses on Leia and her squadron getting pinned down by Imperials, and having a space battle. It’s a well drawn battle scene, with lots of space tactics and explody tie fighters.

Meanwhile, Han and Chewie are in their own mess of trouble back on Coruscant, the heart of the Empire. None other than Boba Fett is hot on their heels, with his pal Bossk. Fortunately, our favorite scoundrel (sorry, Nathan Fillion!) runs into another smuggler, and seems to have made a tough bargain.

Plus, Luke is hearing voices that sound like his dead mentor (where could that lead?) and Darth Vader is working on – shock – a new Death Star, to replace the one that Skywalker just blew up!

Yay!

Life With Archie #29

Huh? Archie? Isn’t that repetitive teen drama?

Not /this/ Archie title. It’s actually two books in one. The first half is a present where Archie is in his mid-twenties and has married the love of his live, Veronica Lodge. The second half is where Archie has married the love of his life, Betty Cooper. They actually did some sci-fi stuff with the universes crossing over, which felt like the expected end of the series. But they correctly realized what they were doing was so good, they tied that storyline up and kept both realities going!

In the Veronica half, most of the focus is on Kevin Keller, the gay friend of the modern Archie gang. He’s running for Senate on a gun control platform, and Veronica is his campaign manager. Meanwhile, Pop Tate and Jughead are getting suspicious about corporate shenanigans at the Choklit Shoppe chain (which Jughead now runs the Riverdale franchise of), Reggie and his wife Betty deal with manufactured drama on the Reality Show about their life, and Archie rails against cookie-cutter pre-programmed bands at his new job managing a record label.

In the Betty half, Betty’s gotten a big promotion to Vice Principal and Archie gets some needed advice from his parents about how to be a supportive husband when his wife is being consumed by work, Cheryl Blossom finds love while struggling with breast cancer, Reggie works on keeping his father’s newspaper going after his father’s heart attack and refuses to endorse Kevin Keller’s senate run (which he seems destined to do in both timelines), Jughead’s little sister Jellybean falls in with a bad seed, and the widowed Mr. Weatherbee finds a kindred soul and new happiness.

These are relevant, adult stories. And they’re extremely well handled. Our familiar characters have made lives for themselves, found some measure of success and had some setbacks. And it’s all handled with heart, in a world that’s just a little better than our own. This is the Riverdale I want to live in, and I hope I can keep reading about it for a long time. Give it a shot, it just might surprise you!

Once upon a time, that would have been the end of it; we would have frowned, gone, “shucks,” and gone on with our lives. Except, of course, that now we can’t, because the con still follows us around, taunting us. With the advent of social media like Twitter and Facebook, we now are treated to color commentary of every fantastic DragonCon delight, every SDCC shenanigan, every PAX pleasure… that we’re not there to enjoy ourselves. Our Twitter feeds fill to bursting with constant reminders of what we’re missing out on while our friends have a good time without us. Those bastards.

This has been on my mind recently as this year seems to be the Year of Missing Cons for me; I didn’t get to go to FanExpo Vancouver due to tickets being sold out, the other game dev conference I go to shifted from Seattle to San Francisco and as such became too expensive a trip to justify, and PAX sold out in something like ten seconds… not that I can really skip my mother’s 75th birthday anyway! How did I handle it? I… well, I pretty much shrugged and said whatever, but STILL! It can be annoying to be stuck home and be beaten over the head all weekend with The Con That Went On Without You, but I have a few tips (beyond the usual “suck it up”) on how to take the sting out of this most first world of #firstworldproblems.

1. Stay off social media

No, seriously, stay the HELL off of social media. I’d say 90% of Missing Con Angst can be traced back to Twitter and endless live-feeds of “Holy crap, I just met Wil Wheaton/played the next Elder Scrolls/got Stan Lee to sign my X.” Back in my days, when we missed a convention, we just briefly wondered what it would be like, then heard a condensed version of it when our friends got home, felt sorry for ourselves for two minutes, then shrugged and got on with things. Damn kids, get off my lawn!

If you can manage it, give social media a wide berth for the weekend during the convention, particularly Twitter. Reducing or ignoring the signal noise of your friends, favorite bloggers, and news outlets can reduce frustration from “GODDAMNIT PAX IS ON AND I’M NOT THERE” to “Oh yeah, PAX was on. Huh, too bad I couldn’t be there. Oh well, back to X!” If you must keep abreast of the convention due to major announcements or things like that, try sticking to an appropriate news feed rather than social media; you’ll get the major points like “Joss Whedon hinted at AntMan for Avengers 2″ or “Square Enix announces Final Fantasy Duodecim Jubilation 13-5″ without the loving details about how AWESOME the convention experience is.

2. Attend local alternatives… or create them yourself

Sometimes, the stars are in alignment and by missing one really cool convention, you are now free to attend another. This is what ended up happening with me recently; while I dithered too long for FanExpo tickets and ended up missing it, it meant I could attend the FullIndie summit for indie game devs instead, and though the ambiance was naturally different, I still had a blast. Check out events in your area that might provide a welcome distraction; you may even find yourself being glad you had the chance to go. And don’t limit yourself to only geeky events either; check out art exhibitions, scheduled rallies, burlesque festivals, whatever lights your fire.

If there’s nothing to do that day, however, consider making something to do. This doesn’t necessarily mean starting your own con, of course, but there are often plenty of geeks just like you mourning the fact that they’re not there to meet Felicia Day and Vin Diesel. Use Meetup or other IRL meeting services to set up a dinner or party for local would-be congoers to get together and have a fun evening… or just get together with friends to drown your geek-related sorrows at the pub.

3. Indulge yourself (within reason)

Obviously, this may depend on your financial state, but think of it this way; how much does an average trip to San Diego Comic Con cost? Between the hotel, the food, the flight, and the tickets themselves, you’re probably well over a thousand bucks. When you put it in that perspective, spending a hundred bucks instead on some cool gadget or a few movies or games you really wanted seems a bit more reasonable. If you have some money to burn but not enough for the full convention experience, take a little bit of the money you’ve saved and get something you’d really like. Then, if nothing else, you can console yourself for missing Sakura Con by looking at your shiny new anime collection and grinning.

If money is really tight or you’re being smart and responsible with your money, there are other ways to indulge yourself; how about with some quality geek time? We’re often so busy with our day to day lives that we don’t make time to sit down and watch that Game of Thrones boxset or do another Mass Effect 3 playthrough. Well, why not make that convention weekend a “special occasion” and catch up on your geeky backlog? It’ll be like your own private PAX, only with way less lineups and more time with the demo machines.

4.  Don’t be bitter

Disappointment leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to being a whiny jerk who puts blame on the “obstacles” between them and the con of their dreams. A little bitterness, particularly joking, is one thing, especially when it’s work that keeps us from our passions – no one is expected to be happy and gleeful if a weekend shift prevents a long-expected trip to a con. But some people go too far and begin outright resenting the conflicting obligations or events… and the people behind them. It’s one thing to say, “I can’t make GenCon; girlfriend wants to celebrate our anniversary,” but quite another to say, “Stupid girlfriend and her stupid anniversary.” Sadly, I see the latter sentiment more than you’d expect.

If family celebrations or other milestones are “getting in the way” of your con plans, don’t shut yourself off from those. Enjoy them for their own sake, particularly if they’re a once in a lifetime celebration like a milestone birthday or anniversary. And don’t make a big production of the fact that you’re OMG PUTTING YOUR LIFE ON HOLD for them; no point in making them feel guilty, and you just end up coming off as a brat.

After all, there will always be next year’s cons…

How do you deal with missing conventions you wanted to attend? Do you find it more or less frustrating now with social media?

Grey Ranks

It’s 1944. You’re child soldiers, members of the Grey Ranks (Szare Szeregi). Designed by Jason Morningstar, Grey Ranks casts your table as members of the Polish partisans, and their lives before, during and after the Uprising against the Germans. In the hands of players who wish to fully explore the subject matter available to a Grey Ranks game, it is an unflinching and devastating look at the Uprising and life around it.

Due to these mature themes, it’s important to discuss beforehand the overall player comfort with topics such as anti-Semitism, totalitarianism, adolescent sexuality, and violence towards children. The importance of first love is one of the central forces at work in Grey Ranks, and the movements of both players and the roll of a die can bring those young lovers together—or tear them apart across the course of the game.

Grey Ranks plays out across ten chapters, and can be played by three to five people. For optimal conditions, four players is the ideal number for a Grey Ranks game. Grey Ranks is tied to its grid, which served as a horrifying illustration of the characters slow spiral into pain and despair. My first encounter with Grey Ranks was purchasing the game while teaching Judaic Studies. My first time playing with the system was a fellow player’s recent hack of Grey Ranks. I fully intend to play through Grey Ranks this year.

You can buy Grey Ranks here.

A Penny For My Thoughts

In A Penny For My Thoughts, your characters guide each other through forgotten memories and events that led you to Orphic Institute for Advanced Studies. The experimental drug Mnemosyne™ and the aid of your fellow amnesiac patients may bring your memories back to you, but will you want to keep them? Penny , after a single play, ranks up there with Fiasco as one of my favorite games. The use of the pennies felt strange at first, but the handling of the pennies gives a physical weight to the events that transpired in your past. Designed and written by Paul Tevis, developed and edited by Ryan Macklin. Buy it. Play it. Love it.

You can buy A Penny For My Thoughts here.

Race to Adventure

Designed by Chris Ruggiero, Eric Lytle, Evan Denbaum, Race to Adventure is put out by Evil Hat Productions. You can save your friends, travel the world and fight pulp villains in this family-friendly board game. Things to love about this game:

• It is astoundingly gorgeous.
• The footprint of the game takes up less than half my dining room table. This game is so tiny you could play it on a picnic table, even one of those dinky half-size picnic tables.
• Race to Adventure is part of EHP’s Spirit of the Century setting, so there’s plenty of other RtA related content to dig into once you master this board game.

It took us more than the 20-30 minutes listed on the box to play, but we were teaching ourselves out of the box, and everyone playing had been working overtime that week. I’m fairly confident that once you know the rules, the game goes by at a much faster clip.

You can buy Race to Adventure here.

Pandemic: On The Brink

Designed by Matt Leacock and Tom Lehmann, Pandemic: On The Brink is an expansion for the fantastic Z-Man Games board game Pandemic. Employees of the CDC, you raise against time across the world to keep four diseases from wiping out mankind. The expansion includes new roles, new special events, and a number of new challenges. Think of this as the mod that takes playing Pandemic to Insanity mode. The reason I love Pandemic as far as its mechanics is that even playing it at a low difficulty is still enough to make you sweat. It’s also a co-op game, which I usually enjoy more than competitive/player v player games. If Pandemic gets you interested in the world of virology, the app game Plague Inc from Ndemic Creations may be up your alley as well.

You can find Pandemic retailers—or order from the publisher if you don’t have a local game shop—at their site.  

Now, some who are used to Moffat’s timey-wimey ways wonder if these references Mean Something – if they’re literally leading up to the plot of the 50th Anniversary Special.  Or if they somehow point to the true nature of Clara.  However, even if they mean nothing beyond a sweet nod to the history of the show, that’s enough to give me the warm fuzzies.  Following are the references I’ve noticed myself – have you caught something I haven’t?

The Snowmen

In this Christmas Special we’re reintroduced to the Great Intelligence.  The Doctor first encountered the Great Intelligence as the Second Doctor in “The Abominable Snowmen,” where robot versions of the cute and cuddly Yeti are terrorizing Tibetan monks.  In a familiar twist, the person behind the yetis is being manipulated by The Great Intelligence, who possess his body at one point.  Just a few episodes later, the Doctor meets the Great Intelligence again in “The Web of Fear.”  This time the Great Intelligence, the robot yeti and a cobwebby fungus have invaded the London Underground.

Which brings us back to “The Snowmen” – The Memory Worm is stored in a box with a map of 60s-era London Underground on it, and mentions the Underground is a key strategic weakness.  Timey-Wimey.

The Bells of Saint John

Once again, the aforementioned Great Intelligence returns.  Also, it’s not a Classic reference, but looks like Amy Pond (as Amelia Williams) decided to keep up the writing gig after breaking into the publishing business (and 50 years of Who includes the later years, too).  And of course we still don’t know what mysterious woman gave Clara the number to the TARDIS – the history of Who gives us numerous possibilities.

The Rings of Akhaten

Notably, the Doctor tells Clara that he’s visited this particular location before – with his granddaughter.  This is a reference to Susan, companion to the First Doctor and, indeed, his granddaughter (though what that really means has been debated endlessly).

Cold War

The Ice Warriors were previously encountered by the Third Doctor.  The TARDIS disappears early on in the episode thanks to HADS – the Hostile Action Displacement System.  Various incarnations of the Doctor have used the system, but we first see it used with the Second Doctor.

Hide

Lots in this episode! The end of the Earth is discussed (and even seen) – which might remind viewers of the episode “The End of the World” with the Ninth Doctor.  However, the orange space suit worn at the end of the Earth probably puts you more in a Ten frame of mind, as it’s been worn in more than one Tennant episode. The Cloister Bells ring in this episode.  They’ve actually rung a fair bit in New Who, but it always thrills me when they do, partly because it’s so ominous and partly because it makes me think of “Logopolis,” the last episode with the Fourth Doctor.  Also, the Doctor uses a Metebelis Crystal to amplify psychic power; these were featured in a few Third Doctor episodes, particularly “Planet of the Spiders,” whereupon he regenerated.  Clara tells the Doctor he needs a place to keep umbrellas, and he’s confused – because there’s often been a coat rack/hat stand/umbrella stand in the console room throughout the Doctor’s history.

Journey to the Center of the TARDIS

Like the Cloister Bells, the swimming pool is frequently mentioned in New Who, but it first appeared with the Fourth Doctor in “The Invasion of Time.”  Clara picks up a bamboo-handled umbrella that looks suspiciously like one the Seventh Doctor had.  Many voices are heard emanating from the TARDIS; mostly clearly heard are Susan, the Doctor’s granddaughter, and Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor talking about how Genghis Khan couldn’t break in.

The Crimson Horror

There might be multiple references in this one, but honestly I’m zeroed in on my very favorite of the entire series: you can watch the video clip here. If you can’t watch it, the Doctor tells Clara that the TARDIS doesn’t always go exactly where he means to – and that it took him quite a long time to get an Australian to Heathrow Airport.  Two seconds later he says, “Brave heart, Clara.”  These are both in reference to Tegan, the Australian flight attendant who was about to start her brand-new job when she got pulled into the world of the Doctor.  Naturally, she wanted to be brought back to the day she left, so she wouldn’t miss her first day; easier said than done.  Also, Clara’s burgundy velvet dress and terrible curly hair are an homage to Nyssa, another companion who was brought on roughly at the same time as Tegan, in the transition between the Fourth and Fifth Doctors.  ”Brave heart, Tegan” was something the Fifth Doctor used to say; it was also referenced in “The Impossible Astronaut” with a “Brave heart, Canton.”

It’s funny – while I’m watching the episodes I only think of them as having one or two little references thrown in, but when you sit down and add them up it’s really quite a lot!  Have you spotted any I’ve missed?  Are these references getting you excited for the 50th Anniversary?

Hawkeye #10

We’ve seen this clown-faced killer before, but really had no idea who he was or why we should care about him more than any of the track-suited mob he was associated with. Well. Now we’ve fixed that!

This issue focuses on Kazimierz Kazimericzak, Kazi for us Americans. We intersperse between him charming Kate Bishop at a fancy party, and his backstory. It’s an unfortunately realistic tale. He grew up in a literal circus, before ethnic cleansing and horrific war tore his life apart and killed everyone he cared about. It could be Poland in the late 1930s, Bosnia, Rwanda, or one of way too many other similar stories (though it’s clearly eastern Europe, and he mentions he’s 34, so a better historian than me would know exactly which conflict.) When he says he comes from hell, he’s not far from the mark.

The similarities to a more famous clown-faced killer from a rival company are only superficial. While the Joker is a sociopath who takes glee in the suffering of others (sort of a super-schadenfreude), Kazi is more numb to the world. And while he claims to enjoy killing, he acts more as a hit-man than a terrorist. Still, you could do a lot worse than have a Joker-esque arch-enemy for the Hawkeyes.

And poor Kate. Watching her friend and mentor continually live a train-wreck of a life that’s entirely his own fault. Been there, done that. It’s no wonder she needs a break, and Kazi is certainly an interesting man, with a kind of poetic beauty over the surface of his broken soul.

This will not end well. And I hope that Kazi isn’t burned up in just this storyline, he’s interesting enough to keep around for a while.

Superior Spider-Man #9

That cover is not just kinda gross, but also apropos to the issue, as it’s entirely a battle between Peter Parker and Otto Octavius inside of their shared mind. SSM is decidedly the most controversial popular comic on the stands, and people either love it or hate it. This issue ups the ante once again, and once again, I’m in the camp that is loving it.

The ‘ghost’ of Peter Parker has been gaining control over his body that has been stolen by Doc Ock, but it hasn’t gone unnoticed. Otto is well established at being an expert on mind pattern superscience – the entire concept of the body swap is evidence of this, even if you aren’t familiar with the full history of Doctor Octopus. He uses one of his old devices (recovered in a previous issue), and attempts to erase Peter Parker, once and for all.

And the mental battle shows an extremely deep understanding of the two characters, as they trade metaphysical blow for blow. It’s really neat! Ultimately, it hinges on who can trap the other in their own logic, in a way, which is fitting for two scientists. And the stakes are, of course, superior. I’m not going to spoil how it ends, but it really is one of the greatest battles in Peter Parker history, and I can’t wait to see where they go from here!

All-New X-Men #11

The title poses the question of which of the All-New X-Men is going to be a dirty traitor and join up with Cyclops and Magneto and Team Antihero, but everyone probably already knows. This is a weird pseudo-crossover with Uncanny X-Men, where Team Antihero lives, and they’ve already published over there that it’s Angel. You really shouldn’t read just one of these two; with the same writer, they’re inextricably intertwined.

The real highlight of this issue, for me, was the aftermath. Of course nobody else was happy that Warren jumped ship, though it makes sense. (Time has not been kind at all to his present-day self.) Jean has a major flip-out and tries to mind control him, which is a bad idea, because Emma brought her pet psychic triplets, the Stepford Cuckoos, and they mind-slap her hard. Which really is a lesson she needed to learn.

Afterwards, she has a very nice heart to heart with Kitty Pryde. This is really the kind of thing women do, that men don’t very often. And it’s nice to see that Bendis has noticed this. Kitty definitely lets Jean know she’s skating on thin ice here, but in a way that’s full of comfort and support and acknowledgement of where she’s coming from. It felt genuine to me.

Meanwhile, Mystique masquerades as Pepper Potts, steals a lot of Tony Stark’s money, and continues to set up the X-Men as fall guys. Which seems to take at the end, as we move from an arc that was more full of social and emotional challenges, back to a more traditional physical one in the form of Uncanny Avengers. I’m of the opinion that you need all three to make a good comic, and this title is doing a good job at hitting its marks.

Those are my top ones this week. Also, Saturday was Free Comic Book Day! I picked up a few, but haven’t had a chance to read them yet. I’m going to roll those into next week’s pile, and we’ll see if free can compete with paid! Maybe, there’s some new stories from some good writers in the stack!

If chosen, your duties will include:

• 1-2 weekly blog posts on subjects like: online dating, writing a dating profile, improving your dating profile, geek dating, 1st dates, choosing a dating site, first contact emails, getting from 1st email to first date. The sky’s the limit, but our goal is to help geeks get more dates.
• Servicing our clients, which includes:
  • Constructive critiques of existing dating profiles
  • Editing existing dating profiles to make them more appealing
  • Writing profiles from scratch after interviewing a client via IMs
  • Coaching clients via IMs and email

Payment is 50% of the retail price of the service packages ordered. Should you be able to help in the writing of our next ebook, you would also receive 50% of sales of that ebook.

You should be:

• A good human being who enjoys helping others succeed
• A geek who is romantically attracted to other geeks
• An excellent ghostwriter who can take on your client’s writing voice
• Experienced in the world of online dating (yourself and/or helping friends)

To apply:

• Email us — e AT geeksdreamgirl DOT com:
  • A brief cover letter, detailing your particular flavor of geek, why you’re interested in the position, and your history in the world of online dating.
  • A Before & After of a geek’s OkCupid dating profile. (Help a friend or a stranger!)

We’ll take applications through May 17.  Skype interviews will take place the following week. We hope to have you on board for the beginning of June.