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Friday, April 15

My I-CON Schedule

Michael TrescaMichael "Talien" Tresca is a game designer, author, communicator, and artist. Michael has authored numerous supplements and adventures for publishers of Open Game License and D20-compatible games, including AEG, MonkeyGod Enterprises, Goodman Games, Otherworld Creations, Privateer Press, RPGObjects and Ronin Arts. His articles and reviews have appeared in Allgame.com, D20 Filtered, Dragon Magazine, Gamers.com, Pyramid, and RPG.net. He has participated in panels about electronic and tabletop role-playing games at Bakuretsucon, Dragon*Con, and I-Con. Michael is the National RPG and Sci-Fi Movie Examiner and recently published a book by McFarland Publishing, The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games.

When he's not writing, Michael can be found as his alter ego, Talien, on RetroMUD as an administrator. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, a preschooler, an infant, and a cat. All are fluent in English.


This guest can be seen at the following programming:

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:42 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Wednesday, April 22

I Was Interviewed on Geezer Radio!

Five people on one show...what could go wrong? That question and more are answered in this weeks episode of Geezer Community Cast. Enjoy. [MORE]

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posted by Mike Tresca at 12:00 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Tuesday, April 14

I'm a Guest on Geezer Radio!

I'll be a guest on Geezer Radio tomorrow! [MORE]

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posted by Mike Tresca at 11:06 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Friday, April 4

Updated I-CON Schedule

“Digital and D20: Transitioning between Pen-and-Paper and Computer Games”
Saturday 11am
Old Chemistry 144

“Creating Compelling Characters”
Saturday 5pm
Old Chemistry 134

“Video Game Violence: Wind-Up or Release?”
Saturday 8pm
Old Chemistry 144

"The Economics of Virtual Worlds"
Sunday 10am
Old Chemistry 144

"Virtual Worlds: In Fact, In Fiction, In Future"
Sunday 1pm
Old Chemistry 144

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posted by Mike Tresca at 10:45 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Tuesday, April 1

I-CON!

Yep, I'll be at I-CON again this year:

“Digital and D20: Transitioning between Pen-and-Paper and Computer Games”
Saturday 11am
Old Chemistry 144

“Creating Compelling Characters”
Saturday 5pm
Old Chemistry 134

“Video Game Violence: Wind-Up or Release?”
Saturday 8pm
Old Chemistry 144

http://www.iconsf.org

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posted by Mike Tresca at 6:39 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Friday, March 23

Cancellation

Due to unforeseen circumstances, I will not be attending tonight's panel at I-CON. I will be there for all my panels tomorrow.

Sorry!

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posted by Mike Tresca at 5:06 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Thursday, March 22

I-CON Update

I'm now going to attend to additional panels at I-CON:

* 3/24/07 12:00pm 2:00pm [898] State of the Industry SAC 304
* 3/24/07 2:00pm 3:00pm [899] Work For Hire: Freelance SAC 304

[MORE]

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posted by Mike Tresca at 7:58 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Tuesday, March 20

My I-CON Schedule

Attended by over 6,000 people each year, I-CON is a three day festival, designed to encourage literacy, creativity and interest in science and technology through science fiction and its related genres. Programming at I-CON spans a wide range of topics and interests, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, Japanese animation (otherwise known as Anime), science and technology, comic books, and medieval reenactment.

Guest speakers are invited from around the world to share their experiences in their fields, information about any new or upcoming projects and their insights into the genre with their fans. Over the course of the convention, guests typically will participate in panel discussions, give workshops and demonstrations, sign autographs, and interact with their fans on a one on one basis in such venues as the Awards Banquet. With so much to offer, I-CON is able to appeal to a diverse audience, including college students, senior citizens and families with young children.

Programs I'm on:

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posted by Mike Tresca at 7:49 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Monday, August 14

Gen Con: The Day After

Well, Sunday actually turned out to be a pretty good day. Waking up at 6:30 a.m. sucked, but it did keep us busy. We had a great gaming group and an even better DM. Unfortunately, the adventure was a murder mystery; given that these adventures are timed slots, mysteries can drag on and on and on. Fortunately, the DM knew this and ushered us along nicely. That, and Blast memorizes charm person and hypnotism for just such an occassion.

Anyway, we faced down a bunch of ghouls with a fireball and then tracked the bad guy to his lair...only to have the bad guy come up behind us while in said lair. He successfully cast "hold person" on Blast (how embarassing!) only to be rescued by one of our clerics who cast protection from evil on him, giving Blast another saving throw.

Things went downhill for the bad guys from there. One fireball and two lightning bolts later and the adventure was over. Overall, Matt/Perin leveled to 4th, Eric/Darius leveled to 3rd, and Blast got a shiny new 1st level spell called Kelgore's Firebolt that inflcts 1d6 fire damage/level (max 5d6). This makes Blast's first level spells much more powerful than a mere magic missile, especially when he has two pearls of power to back him up.

We hit the dealer's room one last time. I bought a whole pile of miniatures, including MageKnight, miniatures from Goodman Games, and the starter kit for HorrorClix. I just couldn't help myself!

Flying back was terrible, as expected. Going out of New York is bad enough, going into New York is downright insane. Everybody gets searched, even boarding the plane. You've got to love Airtran, who handed out what was meant to be a snarky/cute bag of pretzels on every flight. Here's the text from their pretzels (parenthetical commentary mine):

HOW TO EAT GOURMENT PRETZELS ON A LOW-FARE AIRLINE
1. Think about our wonderful low fare at airtran.com as you open packet (LOW FARES?! It was over $200 for a connecting flight!).
2. Place a pretzel in mouth. With each crunch, be reminded of our low fares (yeah, it reminded me of how much Airtran sucks).
3. As you swallow, remember again just how low the fares are (oh, I swallowed something all right, but it's not pretzels...).
4. Repeat until pretzel packet (or wallet) is empty.
5. Keep empty packet to remind yourself to book at airtran.com for our lowest fares and no booking fees (or to remind yourself never to take airtran again).


I was also handed a 1 million dollar bill on the street. It's a trap of course (failed my Spot roll, d'oh!). On the back is this:

THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION: Will you go to heaven? Here's a quick test: Have you ever told a lie, stolen anything, or used God's name in vain? (insert text as "proof" from the bible that it's bad to do all those things) Have you looked with lust? Will you be guilty on Judgement Day? If you have done those things God sees you as a lying, thieving, blasphemous, adulterer at heart. The bible warns that if you are guilty you will end up in hell.


Then, and I love this part, there's an explanation of what to do...with a translation. The parenthetical note is NOT mine:

Please, repent (turn from sin) today and trust in Jesus, and God will grant you everlasting life.


So now we have to define what the word repent is? What's the world coming to?!

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posted by Mike Tresca at 8:03 PM | 2 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Sunday, August 13

Saturday

Saturday went well but was underwhelming. Where Friday was a knock-down, drag-out battle to the death where we all barely survived, Saturday's RPGA event was stupidly easy. The rogue spent hours disarming traps, some of which were clearly identified by graffiti of kobold heads being sliced off. And oh yeah, the headless kobolds laying in the hall.

We then broke a bunch of weapons to get a ritual that nobody can use. After rescuing two people, one of which who didn't really want to be rescued, we came across a troll. And then, frustrated at not having killed anything, beat the crap out of it. I almost felt bad for the troll.

Then we went back to the hotel, drank a lot of beer, and played three-dragon ante all night while watching the Venture Brothers. Good times, good times.

We've got an 8 a.m. game today. This is our last chance to kick some serious Living Greyhawk ass. I'm wearing my special shirt that reads: MY ELF STINKS...STINKS LIKE AWESOME. That's Blast's motto.

We'll see if we live up to it.

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posted by Mike Tresca at 7:21 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Friday, August 11

And that's a wrap

Several beers in, fairly overheated, and ruuning out of air...I have to say that since I'm ana vid Freeeport dm, Green ronin's accolades are well-deserved. I picked up their Freeport books (all of them, including their most recent that concludes the succession of the sea lord).

good bye and good night!

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:50 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Fan's choice for best publisher

And here it is, the big popularity contest! Who will win? Peter Adkinson will tell us...

Incldues customer support, web site, etc. Over 40 were nominated.

Silver: wizards of the coast! As peter put it...how ironic!
Gold: green ronin publishing

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:46 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Innovation Award

Presented by Teflon Billy, this ois a judge's award presented by the board who came across something amazing and wanted to recognize:

Silver: atomic sock monkey press for truth and justice
Gold: impossible dream for dread, which uses Jenga tiles as a rules mechanic

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:42 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Grognard Award

For companies thqat represent older gaming traditions. If only they could figure out who won...

Silver: goodman games. Go Joe!
Gold: necromancer games! Go Bill and Clark!

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:39 PM | 1 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Best Product

Artesia
Fudge 10th anniversary
Game of thrones
Mastermind's manual
Mutants + masdterminds 2nd ed
Pulp hero
Shackled city adv path
Shadowrun 4th ed
Spycraft 2.0
Wilderlands
Hm: etherscope
Hm: dread

silver: mutants and masterminds 2nd edition
Gold: shadowrun 4th edition...they are really, really excited too :)

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:35 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Best d20 Product

Etherscope...I contributed to the Great metropolis supplement, hope it wins!
Game of thrones
Mutants + masterminds
Shackled city
Spycraft 2.0
Hm: thieves world playes manual

Silver: game of thrones by guardians of order
Gold: mutants and masteminds by green ronin publishing

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:28 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Best Game

Artesia
Dread
A game of thrones
Mutants + Masterminds
Spycraft 2.0
Hm: pendragon 5e

Silver: game of thrones by guardians of order!
Gold: green ronin for mutants + masterminds second edition

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:24 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Best Electronic Book

Baba Yaga
Lorebook of the broken isles
Bits of the wilderness: into the open
Stuff!
Truth + justice
Hm: the last dominion

Silver: truth and justice by atomic sock monkey games
Gold: baba yaga the first setting in rassiya by dog soul publishing...too funny, I wrote an adventure about baba yaga from monkey god years ago!

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:20 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Best free product

Age of worms overload
Gates of hell
Mage the Awakening
Return to the Tomb of Five Corners
Six guns: the james yonuger gang

Silver: Mage the Awakening demo by white wolf
Gold: age of worms overload by paizo publishing

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:15 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Best aid or accessory

13th hour
Flip-mat
Galadon mounted on rose
Iron heroes battlebox
Kya and lavarath
Hm: counter collection digital 2.0

Silver: 13th hour by midnight syndicate...I love their d+d music
Gold: flip-mat from steel sqwire...I just bought a bunch of their stuff today, go SS!

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posted by Mike Tresca at 9:12 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

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