I think I've played with this guy

Hoggeston (HOG-us-tn) n. The action of overshaking a pair of dice in a cup in the mistaken belief that this will effect the eventual outcome in your favor and not irritate everyone else.

Found in The Deeper Meaning of Liff, a delightful dictionary by Douglas Adams and John Loyd.

redneck damnation van

source

Shatnerday will rock your world

Jason of Star Frontiers

Here's a pic of Star Command base and/or the Space Academy, from the post-Star Wars live action kiddie shows Jason of Star Command and Space Academy.  I remember really digging the Star Command version.

That thing just oozes sci-fi goodness to me.  Now here's Jim Holloway's illo of the space pirate base from Warriors of White Light, the in-box starter module for Star Frontiers Knight Hawks.

Looks like more than a passing resemblance to me.  Not a direct swipe by any means, though I can't say I would have held it against Mr. Holloway to have done so.  Asteroid bases rule.

PS - I know it's not very good technically, but I'm immensely proud of this:

a not-so-subtle change

Remember those weird dual-pod vehicles flying around Cloud City in Empire Strikes Back?  They were giving Han hassle as he tried to come in for a landing and visit his ol' buddy Lando.  I think my cousin Greg had a toy version of one of these things back in the day.  Of course you could get an official pilot figure.  Dude looked like this:

I like the design on this figure.  White jumpsuits always come off as futuristic to me, especially when combined with those single lens goggles and the swept-back style helmet.  Maybe this guy doesn't scream Star Wars specifically, but he's definitely got a solid sci-fi vibe.

Last weekend I was at a Toys 'R' Us with my buddy Pat.  They had a new display of Star Wars toys with a new version of the Cloud Car Pilot.

Dig that moustachio!  Not only does this new version have more detail and articulation, but it looks like he could be played by Tom Selleck circa Magnum P.I. Watch this fall for Fox's new crime series Space Chicago PD. 

The Gygaxian Building Blocks

This post is nothing more than a quote swiped from a longer post over at theRPGsite, written by my favorite Prussian, Settembrini.  I just wanted to save a copy and thought I'd share.

The REAL and HUGE as well as BASIC innovation in D&D was the following:

1) Providing radically new building blocks for fictious situations.
2) Providing a robust model for interaction of said building blocks.
3) Providing the idea for interacting building blocks

Building Blocks:
- spells
- magic items
- monsters
- special abilities
- traps(- planes & gods)
the combat stuff was already there in some form. Just look at the monsters, at the spells and realize how this stuff was basically made from whole cloth!
I cannot emphasize the importance of that enough.
Whole cloth!

Sure there are conceptual sources. But the procedure in which source material and original ideas were mixed and mashed and formed into interactive building blocks for challenges and their resolution, is creative genius of the highest degree!

I really think identifying the Gygaxian Building Blocks (spells, magic items, monsters, special abilities, traps) is one of Sett's great contributions to the understanding what it is we do when we play this thing called D&D. You want a way to make the game your own but still recognizably D&D? Make your own blocks but don't change how they operate/interrelate.

Arkham Horror

I played the Cthulhu Mythos themed boardgame Arkham Horror for the first time last night. I ended up leaving before the game was over and here is where my guy was when I got up from the table:

That's just beautiful.