There is no denying that Star Wars is a sci-fi icon. The series changed the way that we looked at scifi, both on-screen and behind-the-scenes. Yet for all its accomplishments, Star Wars takes a lot of heat. Primarily, the critics love to bash the Ewoks and Jar-Jar Binks. Let’s start with Jar-Jar. Okay, I get …
Category Archive: Trampas’ Blog
Jun
12
Broadcasting: A Farewell
I had grown up watching WKRP in Cincinnati. Loved the show. The characters were great, and who didn’t want to be Dr. Johnny Fever? It wasn’t until high school, though, that I fell in love with broadcasting. I was approaching my senior year, and had already taken some journalism classes. I got the chance to …
Oct
28
Dragonhelm Keep is Live!
Greetings, friends, and welcome to the new and improved Dragonhelm Keep! I’ve had this site for a while, piddled around with it, but have done nothing serious with it until now. For those that don’t know me, I’m the administrator of the Dragonlance Nexus fan site, the host and producer of the Dragonlance Canticle podcast, …
Oct
28
Who says that role-playing stops when the dice drop?
In some recent episodes of Fear the Boot, Chad has made the statement that role-playing stops when combat begins. He ascertains that the world somehow is put on pause while the dice are brought out, to-hit and damage calculations are made, and monsters are wiped from the field. Chad makes a very convincing argument, which …
Oct
28
Evil Characters
It is said amongst gamers that you should never allow evil characters in the party. There is a good reason for this. As a Dragonlance fan, I’m reminded of the Law of the Dark Queen, which states that evil feeds on itself. This is a truth that surpasses the Dragonlance setting. When you have an …
Oct
28
Vampires? Enough, already!
I came home this evening, opened my e-mail, and saw an e-mail from StarWarsShop.com. I subscribed to their newsletter to check out some of the cool action figures they have, as well as all the other goodies that are way out of my price range. This time was different. You see, it seems that StarWarsShop.com …
Oct
28
Reinventing Characters
One of the tricks I use to learn a new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game is to re-envision an old character in a new edition. Often times, I pick some NPC who got little “air time” to make it easier. He has no mega-history to worry about, and only a very basic amount …
Oct
28
Buying Books for the Wrong Reasons
Recently, I bought a book not because I liked the author or subject matter, but because I wanted to support a guy whose book got some undeserved criticism. J. F. Lewis was recently interviewed on Dragon Page: Cover to Cover episode. His book, Staked, was the cause for him and his family to nearly be …
Oct
28
Balanced? Yeah, but is it fun?
When 3rd edition D&D came about, one of its promises was to have a balanced game system. In fact, game balance had become so prevalent that it seemed that every other topic on some forums was about whether some element of gaming was balanced. Is the new prestige class balanced? What about X spell from …
Oct
28
Revised Editions – Good or Bad?
Lately, as I scour around for new RPG’s to buy, I’ve been bombarded by a ton of products that have either been revised (typically for the 3.5 rules) or have had a new edition put out. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Edition, Shadowrun 4th Edition, …
