Review of "Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire" Up at SGW

I finally bring my spotlight on Crime Pays: A Godfather's Grimoire to a close.  My review is now up on Stargazer's World.  I hope that you all check it out.

L5R Spotlight - Full Review @ Stargazer's World

The timing of this post is pretty ridiculous, considering that Japan is pertty much falling apart around me, but time to continue my review of L5R.  I'm not sure if I'm done with my L5R spotlight because I have a lot that I still want to talk about regarding the system, the setting, and the 4th Edition Core book in general, but I am at the point where I have put out my Full Review of the Game.  You can read that review over at Stargazer's World.  To put it briefly, aside from a few criticisms I really, really liked the book and this iteration of the game in general.  Check out my Full Review!

All Wrapped Up @ Stargazer's World

Today, my wrap-up post for my series on World Building hit the internet over at Stargazer's World.  This series has taken over 10 weeks to come out in full and I had a good time writing it and analyzing my world building processes.  I hope some people got something out of it.  Now, you can find all the articles in one place.  Go give that post a read to find some links to stuff on the web that I use to help me World Building as well.  Please read: All Wrapped Up: My World Building Wrap-Up Post.

World Building Part 10 - The End of the World as We Know It?

My 10th and final world building post in my world building series over at Stargazer's World has been published and is now available.  I urge you to go over there and check it out.  Provide comments.  You know the drill.  Please read: World Building Part 10 - The End of the World as We Know It?

World Building Tips @ Stargazer's World Pt. 9

My latest post in which I explain about first adventures and selling your setting like Mr. Don Draper of the TV Show Mad Men is up at Stargazer's World.  If you haven't already, go check out my post, World Building Part 9 - The Don Draper School of World Immersion.

Review: Soldiers of Fortune @ Stargazer's World

Howdy Folks! Wanted to alert you to my review of Soldiers of Fortune, by Matt James and published by Open Design.  The supplement was full of awesome.  You should go check out my full review which came up on Stargazer's World yesterday.  You can find it here:  Review: Soldiers of Fortune by Matt James

World Building Tips @ Stargazer's World Pt. 8

Oh... yea! My new world building post is up on Stargazer's World.  You should go check out : World Building Part 8 - Kicking Off Your Homebrew Setting Campaign.  Enjoy!

Review of Gamma World on Stargazer's World Now

In case you missed it, my recent product spotlight of Gamma World has ended with my Final Review. Rather than post it twice, It is now up for review on Stargazer's World. Go Check out post Review: Gamma World now! Hope you enjoy it.

New World Building Post at Stargazer's World

In case you missed it, my new post in my series on World Building, is up on Stargazer's World. While I admit that there are a lot of these series out there, I think this one presents some unique commentary regarding building your world from both a Micro level and a Macro level at the same time. I hope to get some feedback. Thanks. You can find that post here: World Building Part 5: Macro Meets Micro. Give it a read and let me know what you think.

World Building Tips @ Stargazer's World Pt. 2

My 2nd World Building Tips Post is up on Stargazer's World. You should go over to his blog http://www.stargazersworld.com/ and give it a look see. I am sure you won't be disappointed. This week's post covers getting started and the world builder's best friend.... head over to Stargazer's World to find out what that best friend actually is.

:)

EDIT:
Sorry, due to some technical problems on my end, the post is not up on Stargazer's World quite yet. Expect this article to be out very soon. My best estimate is that it will be out on Saturday or Sunday. Sorry for the trouble.

World Building Tips @ Stargazer's World

Today begins the first in a series of posts that I will be making over at Stargazer's world. If you want to read this post, you should head over to THAT SITE (ya know, the one that one an award from RPG Blog II) and give this post a read. Then, you should stay tuned for other posts in this series, which will be coming up every Friday.

This week's post, in a very brief summary, introduces you (the reader) to the addiction that is world building.

Go give it a read.

Thank you.

A new game approaches... in the world of ...

As I mentioned in an earlier post this month, I am back in Japan again, which turns out, is one of the few places I can actually ever find games of Dungeons and Dragons to play in or lead. So, let me give a little background on my situation this time around.

As some people who may have followed my blog in the past know, at one point, I was studying Japanese at a university in Chiba, Japan. This school, not far from Tokyo, offered a lot, but not too many opportunities to get in a game of my favorite hobby. At that time, I started this blog, and started really immersing myself in 4e D&D. I ran a game out of my dorm room for some friends of mine and I also travelled quite a long distance to play in a regular game a few times with some really cool people from all around the world.

This time around, I am in Japan on totally different terms. I have a family now, but I also have a salary, something that will be great for picking up books and dice here at the ridiculously overpriced Japanese game shops. I am teaching English at a high school in Yamanashi-ken, the area around Mt. Fuji. It is quite the beautiful area and rife with new inspiration for world building and adventure creation.

Last week after talking with some other ALT's (Assistant Language Teachers) in the near vicinity, I was informed of a particular web forum which is available to teachers in this area and OOOOHHHHHH how my eyes have been opened. There is a long running game on Tuesdays which has been running in the area and there are plenty of players there who would love to get into another game...

So! I will be running my first campaign in quite some time out of my house. This forebodes to be both an interesting and challenging experience. Here are some of the reasons why...

1) We will be playing with players of vastly different experience levels and even language abilities -　some of our players are Japanese speakers, others speak English. It will be really interesting playing D&D not in my native language.
2) We will be playing at my house with my kid around - he is great and all, but the little whipper snapper is only old enough to stand up, much less play D&D (but on a side note, I did get him to throw a massive D20 at a few of the D&D encounter games I attended this summer).
3) We will be playing in my homebrew setting - a setting which has yet to take full form (i am still getting a lot of it on paper).

These challenges will most likely be the subject of many future blog posts here. I hope that you find them interesting and helpful in some way to your own personal games. I will probably be blogging significantly about the campaign setting as it takes shape. I am bringing back to life the game world I started working on some time ago, but re-envisioning it quite a bit.

Also, I will be working with Stargazer and friends at Stargazers world on their blog quite a bit in the near future and will be doing another series over there about being a gamer in Japan, but under these very different circumstances. I hope that you will all enjoy it.

Good to be back
-Shinobicow

A Gamer in Japan Part 1 @ Stargazer's World

My first post in my series on being a gamer in Japan is up on Stargazer's World and has already been met with several great comments and some really good feedback. I hope more comments are coming in; i'm a comment whore. Here is a link to the post over on his site. I hope you will get a chance to check it out and read further into my adventures and my comments about staying in touch with the Dungeons and Dragons hobby while you're abroad in Japan; maybe you will find information there which you can relate to your own experiences in traveling in a different foreign country.

Here is the link:
http://www.stargazersworld.com/2009/06/25/a-gamer-in-japan-part-1-the-group/

My Introduction on Stargazer's World

Well folks, i submitted my first guest blog spot over at Stargazer's World tonight. Hopefully it should be up soon. It is just a quick introduction to me and my games, but it also introduces the columns that i will be writing for his site.


First i will be writing a short series on my experiences with role-playing in Japan. After that i will be doing an ongoing column on world building, especially my thoughts on world-building using Japanese themes and concepts.

Hope you'll go over to his site to give them a read. I'll post links to my columns up here in a sidebar once i actually start the meat of the columns which i'll be writing.

Laterz