Inmate banned from playing D&D

Wow, so this is weird. A federal court of appeals has held up a ruling that a convicted felon cannot play D&D because other inmates were afraid he'd started a "gang". Oh, and there's this from Boing Boing:

Singer was told by prison officials that he could not keep the materials because Dungeons & Dragons "promotes fantasy role playing, competitive hostility, violence, addictive escape behaviors, and possible gambling," according to the ruling. The prison later developed a more comprehensive policy against all types of fantasy games, the court said.

Just wow. And in Wisconsin no less, where the hobby was invented! This will set gamers/nerds back decades!

Granted, the guy's a fellon, but seriously that legalese is about as psycho-babble fascist as it gets. I wonder what evidence they have to back that up. Here's the full story....

Exonauts! has launched!

My new sci-fi adventuring blog, Exonauts!, is up and running. It focuses on ideas for sci-fi RPGs and writing, etc. Exonauts are explorers and adventurers cavorting to/from/around/on exoplanets--it's as simple as that. Instead of creating a campaign based on a single world, I thought it might be cool to do one from a an adventuring perspective where any world could be one of many destinations. So how would these exonauts be equipped, what would they find, where would they go? That's what the new blog is all about....

Have a look for yourself.

GO FOR LAUNCH!

A new adventure awaits!

Something on the launch pad....

New project in the works. I'll point you to it when it's go for liftoff....

Learning My Dungeon Alphabet!

IT'S HERE!!!

I'd pre-ordered Michael Curtis' wild and woolly Dungeon Alphabet from Goodman Games back in December and it arrived this morning. I can't tell you how un-be-liev-ably cool it is--so I'll just show you! I don't want to get into any trouble with images, so I'll keep these small, but rest assured it's worth MORE than the measly $9.99 I paid for it (plus shipping).

Inside cover spread...

It's filled with all kinds of old-school goodness (it's system neutral) and even has a few pages on injecting weird elements into your games. Here's the alpha-letter rundown:
A is for Altars
B is for Books
C is for Caves
D is for Doors
E is for Echos
F is for Fungi
G is for Gold
H is for Hallways
I is for Inscriptions
J  is for Jewels
K is for Kobolds
L is for Levers
M is for Magic
N is for No Stone is Left Unturned
O is for Oozes
P is for Pools
Q is for Questions
R is for Rooms
S is for Statues
T is for Traps
U is for Undead
V is for Vermin
W is for Weird
X is for Xenophobia
Y is for Yellow
Z is for Zowie!

All of the letters are chocked full of great ideas in the form of random tables. Just about every page has an illustration in the OSR spirit, as well it should--it boasts an incredible line-up of OE D&D artists, including Erol Otus, Jeff Easley, Jim Holloway, Jim Roslof (among others).

A is for Altar....

Z is for Zowie...

I especially appreciate the W is for Weird and Z is for Zowie letters, which are direct descendants of modules like Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (these aren't my words, they're straight outta' the book). Anyway, this has to be one of the best OSR products out there and you don't have to be a fan of the OSR to use this book. That said, those who are playing OE or retro-clones will full appreciate what a wonderful product Michael, Goodman, and the illustrators have created.

So the real question here is--why haven't you picked up yours yet?! :)