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
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
See How Bryan Fuller Sees Trek
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
Constellation Dress Glows in the Dark
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
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
Technology in Alternate History
WSFA Small Press Award Finalists
Heinlein Press Conference (video)
43rd French National SF Convention (will Norman be there?)
SCIENCE
1/6 Scale Homage to the Mercury 13
Tonight: Space-X Liftoff and Landing
Shades of Rosie Greer: Preparations for Full Head Transplant
Private Company to Mine the Moon
Four Years of Curiosity’s Mars Photos and 1,000 HiRise Pics
THE Flood Isn’t the ONLY Flood
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
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
PRESS RELEASES & NEWSLETTERS
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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