PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS (Full text below)

Flamecon; Omni Magazine; RPG Newsletter #65

SOCIAL

Comic Collectors: Keep an Eye Out for 85K in Stolen Merchandise

The Kinds of Questions We Ought to be Asking the Candidates

“Free” News is a sure way to go out of business

Shades of Khan Noonian Sing:  Should we create genetic hybrids?

Something We Might See Again Under a Trump Presidency

Lots of Females Watching Suicide Squad (well duh!)

Are you a Good Bot or a Bad Bot? TESLA Car Drives Man to Hospital

Humans Could Learn Something:  Humpback Whales Protect Other Species

Studying the Effects of Social Media on Teens (If it concludes anything other than “messed up”, I call for a new study: “…and 18 year olds are about halfway through that process. Their prefrontal cortex is not yet fully developed. That’s the part of the brain that helps you to inhibit impulses and to plan and organize your behavior to reach a goal.” Dr. Sandra Aamodt, neuroscientist)

World Consumes 1 Year’s Worth of Resources in 7 Months (then settles on couch with nachos)

Biological Entities to Lose Jobs to Electronic Entities

Time to Stop Voodoo Medicine

Essay on Consent

8thiest Wins License Plate Lawsuit in New Jersey

ENTERTAINMENT

Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous Orion Nebula

Cosmonaut Spends 2 Days in Orbit

And They Say SF Isn’t Predictive:  Anime-Inspired Jet Pack

Help Scientists Discover New Species

Shades of Frank R. Paul – New Roller Vehicle

Will Bill Finger Documentary Give the Finger?

Rogue One Trailer  (Personal ‘yawn’) and more

NASA Slo-Mo Rocket Test

See How Bryan Fuller Sees Trek

Trek Tee

Filipino Suicide Squad Cosplay

Robots Break Dance Record (but don’t break dance)

Alternate Reality TV Show Continues without Show Runner (in this reality)

The Best Cats From Fantasy Fiction (they’re all #1)

First Look at adaptation of Chiang’s Story of Your Life – The Arrival…and More

David A. Hardy Pic of the Week

Zap Branigan Does Trump Tweets

World War Z Sequel

Constellation Dress Glows in the Dark

Pulp Adventures #22

Pulp Coming Attractions

Aquaman First Look (does anyone really read Aquaman?)

The Photographic Mystery of the Mystery Moon Ballet

Alphas Will Be Watching, Gammas, Probably Not:  Brave New World to be adapted

Another, not so cerebral adaptation:  Power of Greyskull

INDUSTRY

Disc World Coloring Book

Fighting Online Abuse

Enter Your Horror Short in a Film Contest (Keep your short horror to yourself)

Does (should) a Muslim Perspective Matter in Spec Fic?

When a Writing Contest Changes Its Rules (Mid-Stream)

Reading Increases Lifespan Study (via Joe Zavorski)

The UK Goes Disney:  Copyright Extension

Spotlight on Adam-Troy Castro (Hey!  Close the door!)

Spotlight on Kameron Hurley (She’s talkin and you better listen!)

Fantastic Stories Submission Guidelines

NASA Media Brief for Osiris-Rex Asteroid Mission

NASA Concept Art for Deep Space Habitats

SFWA’s Andre Norton Jury Seeking Diverse Works

Le Guin Feminist Fellowship Available

Resnick Gets Gold Lion

Technology in Alternate History

WSFA Small Press Award Finalists

Mythopoeic Award Winners

Murray Moore to Assemble WOOF

Heinlein Press Conference (video)

Kenny Baker Dead

Coyotl Awards

43rd French National SF Convention (will Norman be there?)

SCIENCE

1/6 Scale Homage to the Mercury 13

Tonight:  Space-X Liftoff and Landing

Moon Over Jupiter

Shades of Rosie Greer:  Preparations for Full Head Transplant

Private Company to Mine the Moon

Cubesats for Teachers

Four Years of Curiosity’s Mars Photos and 1,000 HiRise Pics

Crystal Brains

Shades of Old Venus

THE Flood Isn’t the ONLY Flood

Kepler’s New Earth Targets

Yah. Ze capzool vill haf a door vith explozive bolts

…and we STILL don’t know what IT is…and More

How To See Apollo Landing Sites

NASA to Air Spacewalk

Walkin on the (Chinese) Moon:  China’s Spaceplane Could Be Next Orbital Vehicle

No Planets Around Vulcan Star:  Maybe THIS is the alternate universe?

And You Thought Orbits Were Roughly Oval?  Check Out Rosetta’s Orbit Around Comet

Trans-Neptunian (say it, it sounds otherworldly…) Object Unidentified

Interview with Green on Parallel Universes & String Theory

Robot Suit for Paralysis

PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS

FLAME CON 2  PRE-PARTY SOLD OUT! LIMITED CON TICKETS AVAILABLE FIRESTARTER, our official kick-off to FLAME CON 2 on Friday, August 19th at The Bell House, is now completely sold out! There are no longer options to buy a FULL FLAME-CON PASS nor just a ticket to the party. But fear not, super-friends! YOU STILL HAVE TIME TO GRAB A WEEKEND PASS FOR OUR SHOW ON AUGUST 20th & 21st, WHILE THEY LAST. We also have individual one day passes, but SATURDAY is very close to being sold out as of right now, so don’t delay. Also, please note that TICKETS ARE $5 MORE IF YOU BUY AT THE DOOR. Online sales will end on 8/19, so be sure to get tickets now. TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE! We are thrilled to announce that our sponsor Thomson Reuters will be providing the official mobile app of FLAME CON 2 via CONVENE.  This is a one-stop app for all the information you need about the two-day event. DOWNLOAD the FREE app ahead of time, so you’re ready for the show on August 20th! available for iPhone and iPad from… iTunes available for Android devices from… Google Follow @flamecon on TWITTER for exclusive information, complete list of exhibitor Tweeps & help spread the word with #FlameCon2

Twitter Facebook FlameCon.org

###

###

RPGnet Newsletter #65
August 9, 2016

New Columns

Christopher Cecil brought a new issue of Fuzzy Thinking: “Mystical Space Knight Training.”

Christopher Herde delivered the third installment of his column Our Story, this time examining one of “History’s Player Characters: Khalid ibn al-Walid.”

New Reviews

Antonios S tried out “Campaign Cartographer 3+ (and Campaign Cartographer 3) / City Designer 3 / Dungeon Designer 3,” a useful and powerful mapmaking tool for your RPG campaign.

He also reviewed “Pandemic Legacy – Season 1.” Unfortunately, the “Legacy” aspect does not live up to the quality of Pandemic itself.

Board game reviews continued with Edward Kabara’s look at “Octodice,” a great mix of Eurogame and Yahtzee.

RPGnet’s own Shannon Appelcline kept the board game reviews coming with “Mystery!: Motive for Murder,” an innovative and interesting game of investigation that has some issues with randomness and ease of use.

Later in the week, Antonios S returned with reviews of three products related to the miniature’s game Guild Ball: “Guild Ball Season I,” a fantasy rugby / American football simulation; “Guild Ball Season I: Butcher’s Guild,” one of the game’s eight guilds; and a second of those eight guilds in “Guild Ball Season I: Fisherman’s Guild.”

Antonios S also continued his series of reviews on the Mutant Chronicles RPG line with the “Dark Legion Campaign Book,” a fairly cohesive and entertaining campaign that has some weak points in execution.

Antonios S rounded out the week with a review of “Ripples From Carcosa,” an adventure collection for Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition that features some classic themes but problems in adventure design.

Threads You Might Have Missed

For some thoughtful discussion of a common RPG buzz-phrase, check out “I don’t think I understand ‘rulings not rules.'” Honestly, yr. humble editor isn’t quite sure he entirely understands it, either, even after reading the thread, but it’s good food for thought as to GMing techniques.

Along the same lines, “Is Railroading Just a Matter of Philosphy?” examines issues surrounding linearity in adventure design and GMing technique with fresh perspectives on the old canard that railroading is necessarily terrible.

Sign Off

Have a good week, everyone.

• Iustum
  Newsletter Editor