Game night

Posted on May 3, 2019 by J

Tonight is game night baby. And to make everything just a little bit better, my Paladin has reached level 6, which means I get to roll for more hit points as well getting some more powers. If i remember correctly I don’t get any spells, but I’m there’s other stuff that will make up for it.

In this group we play in the Forgotten Realms setting. So, no Dragonlance here either. However, that is pretty nice, since I don’t know world as well and therefore everything is new and exciting. Fractions, gods etc. are more or less unknown to me so I get to experience a lot of things for the first time. Not bad at all.

Drizz’t Do’Urden himself by Todd Lockwood.

The Forgotten Realms books I have ever read, besides the Drizz’t books, is the Avatar Trilogy, which I read 26 years ago, right after I graduated high school. That means heavy partying, so I was very hung over when I actually sat down to read. If memory serves, I didn’t even read them in the correct order. Much like the Chronicles and Legends, the Danish version of the Avatar Trilogy is split into six books, and the public library didn’t always have the next one available.

Back in the day, Forgotten Realms got some flag from some people in the Dragonlance community, most likely because there were more product releases. But in this day and age, I think most people are just happy that we still get new D&D material of high quality.

Riding the wave

Posted on April 30, 2019 by J

Last night I watched the latest episode of Game of Thrones. For some odd reason I haven’t been watching this show, but my wife has, and she suggested we watch the last season together. So basically, I have skipped the entire book and have jumped right to the last page.

In last night’s episode, there was a dragon battle, which of course made med think of Dragonlance. I know, obvious. There has been a lot of talk in the Facebook group about an upcoming live action rendition of Dragonlance, which a lot of people seem to be interested in. Given the success of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones it might be an obvious choice to adapt Dragonlance for the small or big screen.

To be honest, I think I would rather have the book line resurrected. There are so many interesting things that could be done with Krynn in terms of gaming and novels that I think it would be a shame to not do this. There’s probably not a lot of money to be made from that though, so maybe an adaptation would make the most sense.

As far as I can tell, the creators of Game of Thrones have worked closely with George R. R. Martin in order to keep the show as close to the books as possible. If the Dragonlance Chronicles were to be adapted for TV, I think it would require a thorough change in order to make it more relevant for the current times. I still love the Chronicles, but there are not the best written books by Weis and Hickman. However, if the two original creators were heavily involved, I have no doubt they could recreate the Dragonlance feel in more modern and mature context. Unless of course they want to make it a kids’ show.

The beautiful thing about taking the Chronicles to the small screen is that in case of a success, you have the sequel ready to go with the Legends books. Imagine what the battle between Raistlin and Fistandantilus would look like using today’s technology. Or the dragonarmies arriving at Neraka.

Even though Joe Manganiello is allegedly floating a script, there are so far no signs of a resurrected Dragonlance.

New reading material

Posted on April 24, 2019 by J

I finally got Master and apprentice from Amazon. There’s nothing better than reading a book for the first time.

The Rise of Skywalker

Posted on April 15, 2019 by J

I have to admit that the title makes me a bit uneasy, but at least the teaser trailer looks pretty good.

A reason to use Excel

Posted on April 4, 2019 by J

Excel's new "insert data from picture" tool works surprisingly well with Dungeons and Dragons https://t.co/0COWfIs8br pic.twitter.com/QJvAnVkhx7
— Lifehacker (@lifehacker) April 4, 2019

Oldschool Motioncap

Posted on April 4, 2019 by J

I had to share this one. It is pretty damn awesome.

Some original mocap footage used to animate the characters in the first Mortal Kombat game!#gaming #MortalKombat #MortalKombat11 #retrogaming pic.twitter.com/mJkqZH6hZf
— Alpha Beta Gamer (@gameralphabeta) April 3, 2019

A tiny light in the dark?

Posted on April 1, 2019 by J

I stumbled upon this post by Tracy Hickman from February. Now, as any good fanboy I went down the rabbit hole and started imagining what new Dragonlance project had been green lit by the Dragon Highlords in Seattle. It is of course wishful thinking, as there have been no signs whatsoever of a resurrected Dragonlance since the line was discontinued back 2007.

However, if we allow ourselves to dream a little, one might have a preference as to what will be released. A lot of people on Facebook talk about a live action movie or TV show like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. It would make a lot of sense given the success of these franchises and the profits that can be found in those media.

Personally, I would prefer books and game material as that would move the setting forward instead of rehashing stories we have all read and re-read a hundred times. Not to mention the risk of releasing something that will alienate the original fan base due to questionable creative choices, much like what happened with Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Besides, I think it is time to move the story forward, especially considering where we left the world of Krynn. It seems to me that they had fixed the issues that the 5th Age created and had a pretty good baseline for new stories independent of the characters and story lines we are familiar with.

I am not holding my breath here, but I do return to that Facebook post from time to time.

Back at it again?

Posted on March 28, 2019 by J

It has been over a year since I archived the blog vowing to never blog again. To be honest, blogging seemed a little stupid, given the rise of Twitter, Facebook and their ilk, and I didn’t really feel like I had anything worth saying.

Now, I still don’t think I have anything worth saying really, but having had an overload of various media streams, I came to the realization that I had become nothing more than a brain dead consumer of anger inducing posts by people I didn’t really want to engage with. So, the first step was to limit my Facebook usage to an absolute minimum. I have unfollowed a whole bunch of people and removed as much personal information as possible. Step two is to perform the same pogrom on my Twitter feed, and let me tell you, I am doing great. Third, I want to create content instead of consuming it all of the time. Nobody will read this blog, but that is not the point either. I want to reverse the tide, so my poor brain can get back to work in a proper manner instead of chasing the next shot of dopamine from the all too well-know “pull to refresh” movement.

And since I am playing 5th edition with a bunch of like minded individuals I might actually have something to write about in the future.

Thrawn Treason

Posted on March 26, 2019 by J

GIFs and memes are fun, but books are better. Summer 2019 – THRAWN: TREASON by Timothy Zahn. Set before the finale of Rebels, Thrawn’s Imperial loyalty is tested, he crosses paths with Orson Krennic, and his protégé Eli Vanto returns with dire warnings about Thrawn’s homeworld. pic.twitter.com/NfVWCaKe0e
— Star Wars Books (@StarWarsByRHW) December 5, 2018

Archiving the blog

Posted on December 30, 2017 by J

Even though I recently renewed my domain, I have decided to archive this blog. I have moved all the posts to WordPress.com and I will not be renewing this domain again.

Given the rise of the various social media platforms, it seems like blogging is dying and since I have little to say anymore, I think it is finally time to retire my rants for good.