Straight-up chess, or chess played on a wall! I wonder how the match is going between the crew of the International Space Station and ground control and others?

And...has the internet killed "postal chess" or has it just all gone online?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Upon the urging of some at SF Signal (although they may deny it), I took a look at the fiction set in the game universe known as Warhammer 40,000 (produced by Games Workshop). Some further research yielded recommendations from science fiction authors such as David Drake (who is going to be writing a "blurb" for one of the upcoming books) and John Lambshead (researcher, game designer, science fiction author who somehow finds time to play the game).

Well...with recommendations like those... more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:33 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Continuing my interest in all things HALO (even though I've never played the game, just collected some figures, bought some books, and played some music), here is a view of the Master Chief vs. a view of the Master Chief. Remember that history is written by the victor!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:59 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I know very little about Halo, given a general lack of interest in computer gaming (something I've mused about in the past). Maybe someday I'll plunk down the $$$ for an Xbox or a Wii or a Whatever. My only connection with Halo are little Halo figures that march across the top of my computer (from a board game that appears to have already died), some CD's of music (not the first time I've gotten hooked on a soundtrack well before seeing the source) and a book of designs for the game. Plus one novel, that made so little sense that I stopped reading it (this was before the Giant Tobias Buckell Announcement, of course). more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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An interesting look at those little cubes and other geometric solids that rule the roleplaying game tabletop. Are they "fair"?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:48 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 It's a small world, Fred. My office (when I'm in it) is just down the hall from Ed's at Wolfram Research.

Posted by: Bill White at July 24, 2008 09:50 AM (OiNdx)

2 If somebody starts humming Disney tunes, somebody is gonna get hurt...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at July 24, 2008 11:35 AM (jc70B)

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Princess of Wands; John Ringo (Baen Books, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4165-0923-3, cover by Stephen Hickman).

(The entire first section of the book available as a fee read at Baen's site.)

Barbara Everette has a problem. She wants to be a nice soccer mom, life mate to her husband, member of society. But sometimes she feels like she's going to go nuts. Sometimes she needs to get away.

So get away she does. Off for a weekend away. Alas, she ends up in the middle of a case involving a series of serial killers, a manifesting demon, and an outbreak of the likes that hasn't been seen since the Innsmouth incident in the 1920's.

Thank goodness she runs into a detective from New Orleans on the trail of the killer. And happens to be packing her pistol. And finds she can channel power from God. Let the bullets fly!

Another fun read from John Ringo. The book is filled with in-jokes (many of the character's are named after science fiction fans and several are takes on various famous authors), and feeling like a much hyped up episode of the X-Files, or even better, a typical gaming session of the venerable Call of Cthulhu RPG.

The adventure continues with another serial killer who takes victims at science fiction and fantasy conventions. The body count might even be higher here, along with the level of demon power. Buffy? Hah! Wimp compared with Barbara Everette!

An interesting twist is the main character's strong Christian beliefs. Interesting in that most of the seemingly endless vampire detectives, wizard detectives, etc., don't seem to be either particularly Christian (or even religious in many respects). Strange, that...

My only complaints are that he hasn't written a sequel yet. Guess I'll have to pick up something else by Ringo for my next fast read!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:44 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now here's somebody with a lot of free time on their hands. From J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, a reconstruction of The Battle of Helms Deep and The Battle of Pelennor Fields...using licorice, gummy bears, chocolate pretzels...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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HALO: First Strike; Eric Nylund (Del Rey, 2003, ISBN 0-345-46781-7, cover by Lorraine McLees).

HALO: Ghosts of Onyx, Eric Nylund (Tor, 2006, ISBN 978-0-765-35470-9, cover artist not indicated).

The review can now be found here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I believe I forgot to post this hilarious bit from XKCD.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 01:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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So, according to this, my obsession with collecting books and games is actually good for the environment.

Like I needed an excuse...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One of those cases where life is stranger than fiction! On the other hand, the brilliance of the criminal mind was not shining that brightly.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away I discovered a science fiction roleplaying game called Traveller. A little black box, three booklets. You provided pen, paper, dice and imagination. What fun we had during college with that! Traveller evolved into various editions, died, was brought back, died again, was brought back again. I drifted in and out.

Some time later another company brought out a science fiction roleplaying game based on Star Wars. I bought some of the modules, but never really used it. That game eventually faded, but that franchise went out to be run by the uber-gaming company...which also et the franchise fail.

They've now brought out The Saga Edition of the Star Wars roleplaying game. Is there still room for pencil and paper games in a world of many flavors of computer games? Here's a review that looks at the current edition.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 05:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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(Wandering through 2004...)

Or so it says on the box. Yep, I have my copy of Attack Vector from Ad Astra Games, though the universe has conspired against me since the box arrived and I haven't had much time to delve into it.I'm pretty darned impressed with what I have seen. Nice artwork, lots of text to fool around with (in terms of background—a bunch of ships, plus details on the major worlds), and what appears to be a clearly written rulebook. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:01 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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