Sitting through Quantum of Solace, I was disappointed at the lack of a Q (or R) presence in the movie. Sure, Bond still had great toys to play with, but where were the brains behind them? As a kid - and later as an adult - I loved Bond movies. The guns ... the girls ... the gadgets! In a series as formulaic as the Bond movies, oftentimes the most exciting part was when Q came into a scene with his impressive arsenal of camouflaged carnage creations and high-tech gadgetry.

The most impressive toys were stars in their own right, getting lots of screen time and playing pivotal roles in helping Bond escape or capture important information. But hidden between the Aston Martins and Rolex Submariners were Q inventions that never made it out of the lab -- clever killing conceptions the director used as wallpaper to illustrate the Q branch's creativity.

So, as a tribute to the absence of the Q branch's lab in the last two films, let's step inside Universal Exports and take a look at the 007 best Q gadgets that never made it out of the lab:

7. Goldeneye - Phone booth trap with airbag. Part of the reason some of these inventions must've stayed in the lab was that they were just too cartoony. Can anyone really imagine Goldfinger being trapped in this? (Actually, the idea of that is pretty funny.)

Check out the rest after the jump ...

Continue reading "The Top 7 "Q" Gadgets (That Never Made It Out of The Lab)" »

A long-winded title but it points out a truism: the best thing about being a geek are the toys, and the best thing about being a GeekDad is playing with your kids with those toys. If you're looking for other gift suggestions, make sure you take a peek to the right and see gift guides 1-4 (and maybe more, depending on when in the timeflow you look at that sidebar.)

LEGO Agents Command Base
Toy-of-the-year level play, this semi packs tons of vehicles, gear, and minifigs. Elegantly organized so multiple builders of differing skill levels can all have fun. Read the review or buy it from Amazon.

Bloxes
Folding cardboard building bricks, big enough to build a wall or fort. Combine with a couple of Nerf guns and you get a great way to while away the winter months -- or just build with them like giant blocks. Buy them from Amazon.

BattleTech Introductory Boxed Set
The ultimate giant robot board game. This starter set comes with plastic robot figures, quick start rules, and advanced rules. With over 20 years of background material, this game can get as complicated as you can handle! Read the review or buy it from Catalyst's online store or from Amazon.

Thames & Kosmos CHEM3000 Chemistry Set
While chemistry sets have fallen on hard times, this one still impresses, serving up safe and educational experiments for kids. Good for middle schoolers and up, packs 387 experiments and is made in Germany. Buy it on Amazon or from the Maker Shed.

Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium
Point the unit at any star and press a button, and thanks to the magic of GPS the SkyScout will tell you about the star! Or choose a star from the menu and SkyScout will tell you where to look. Locates over 6,000 stars. Read our review or buy it from Amazon.

Ladyada's Arduino Starter Pack
Everything you need to get started with the world's coolest hobby microcontroller, the Arduino. Comes with electronic components, cables, and of course the latest and greatest Arduino. Buy it from Ladyada. If this looks too difficult and you need something a little more focused, you might want to try the Microcontroller Experimentation Kit from ThinkGeek.

Nerf Dart Tag
Everyone needs a little physical activity, especially in the winter. What better way to get Dad and kids off the couch than a little Nerf warfare? This set comes with two 10-shot dart guns and two scoring vests. Buy it from Amazon.

Magnetic Accelerator
More of a novelty than a project that can obsess someone for days on end, this kit lets you build a magnetic accelerator -- a mass driver -- that flings ball bearings. Buy it from ThinkGeek.

ARRL Ham Radio License Manual
Ham radio is a delightfully nerdy hobby open to all ages. If you can write well enough to take and pass the licensing exam, you're entitled to be a ham. This book helps you get up to speed on the knowledge you need to pass. Great for parents and kids to do together. Buy it from Amazon.

Clone Wars Miniatures Game Starter Set
This simple board game allows you to act out the epic battles of the Star Wars mythos, or those of your own imagination. This reasonably priced set comes with figures, a game map, rules and a 20-sided die -- everything you need. Read our review or Buy it from Amazon.

Estes Tandem-X Model Rocket Launch Set
What a fun hobby. Combines art with physics and lots of fun. Learn how to build your own model rocket, and launch it from the accompanying launcher. Buy it from Amazon.

Snap Circuits Jr.
Building blocks containing electrical and electronic components, allowing kids to build their own circuits -- no soldering required! Allegedly for 8 years and up, the starting age actually depends on your kid and I could see 5- and 6-year-olds appreciating this kit, especially if Dad helps out. Comes with 100 projects. Buy it from Amazon.

If you're a fan of geeky music, you probably know that Jonathan Coulton became famous partly due to his "Thing a Week" experiment a few years ago. Well, now Paul and Storm—friends and sometimes touring partners of JoCo's but very different musically—are doing their own, shorter experiment: The 25 Days of Newman.

No, this has nothing to do with Seinfeld. The "Newman" in this case is Randy Newman, Oscar-winning composer of tons of film scores and such memorable tunes as "Sail Away" and "You Can Leave Your Hat On." In 2003, when the movie Seabiscuit, with a score by Newman, was in the theatres, Paul and Storm decided that Newman should've written a theme song for it as well, and that since he hadn't, they would. This idea then became a series of theme songs for other movies, taking the original tune and lyrics they'd used for the Seabiscuit song and transforming them to suit the movies in question. Of course, aiming for the funniest songs possible, they went for the movies one would least expect to find Randy Newman songs in, such as Scarface, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and even The Passion of the Christ.

So now they're doing The 25 Days of Newman, each day until Christmas publishing a new Randy Newman movie song parody online. Each song is free to listen to, download, share, etc., as Paul and Storm publish all their music under a Creative Commons license. So far they've covered The Godfather, The Big Lebowski, and The Shining. Listen and enjoy! Each song is only 90 seconds long, so even if it's not to your taste you won't have lost much time trying it out. I should warn you that their songs are not intended for kids, and some of them are very much not kid-safe.

Disney conducted a recent survey of 11,500 parents about their kids' technology habits, which provided some interesting results: because children are being exposed to technology at younger ages, it seems some parents are struggling to keep up. The parents are unsure what gadgets are age appropriate and confused about how to keep their kids safe online.

Other results include:

• 48% of respondents aged 25-34 said their children began using a cell phone at age 5 or younger

• Despite 80% stating they were worried about online safety, 26% said their children, age 8 or younger were allowed internet access while alone

• 81% provided their children a personal e-mail address to register for a site online, 69% have uploaded a photo and 59% have used chat/IM

Digging deeper into the survey, it is revealed that only 7% of the survey respondents buy the latest and greatest gadgets and technology -- that's about 50% less than how the regular population buys -- meaning these parents are probably pretty non-geeky.

So maybe these folks do need a little help. That's where Disney is stepping in. They've set up a Web site to help parents cope with an online world and understand what toys and technology are age appropriate. If you are looking for tips on online safety, games to buy for your kids or just want to know if your kid's old enough for an iPod or can be trusted alone with Google, Disney has you covered. The site is a positive step for helping out. It has good information and seems to be pretty unbiased -- recommending sites and products that are outside the Disney family.

The GeekDads talk about videogames for the whole family with X-Play host Adam Sessler. Enjoy!

GeekDad.com is the parenting blog at Wired.com, edited by Ken Denmead and Chris Anderson.  It is a community of like-minded geeky parents writing about our experiences raising our kids in the digital age, and about our obsessions with technology, family-friendly projects, and pop-culture.  The GeekDads podcast is a bi-weekly discussion of anything and everything that impacts us as geeks and parents.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes.

You can subscribe directly with this RSS feed.

You can download GeekDad Episode 33.mp3 directly.

Or you can listen in this embedded player.

Last week, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix made its long-awaited appearance on the Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network Store. This is exciting news simply because most fans can’t get enough Street Fighter II, but more so because this iteration features musical contributions from the OverClocked ReMix community.

OverClocked ReMix was proud to work with Capcom to develop a new, remixed soundtrack for Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. While video game companies have worked with fans in the past, HD Remix is the first major video game with a completely fan-made soundtrack. More than twenty gamers from around the world contributed remixes of the original Street Fighter games' music for inclusion in the updated game, in styles including jazz, hip-hop, reggaeton, spaghetti western, garage rock, big beat and electronica.

The game has received very favorable reviews, with the groundbreaking musical elements being cited as one of the refinements "that make SSF2THDR one of the best remakes of a classic game in recent memory." This soundtrack has been made freely available by OverClocked ReMix, and fans of chiptunes and VGM are heartily encouraged to check it out.

Via Digg

My family and I recently traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (Earth) to visit family for the Thanksgiving Holiday. While there, we had the opportunity to explore the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal. It is actually three museums, plus additional attractions, all in one facility.

One of the attractions is the building itself. Union Terminal train station, completed in 1933, is a fantastic example of Art Deco architecture (and looks amazingly like Justice League Headquarters!) The restored half-dome interior is brilliantly painted and features a large mosaic depicting the history of the area. Architecture geeks, like myself, will want to bring their cameras.

In the early part of the 20th Century, Cincinnati had five railway stations, served by seven rail companies. These stations were inadequate for the growing needs of the city and would would frequently flood during seasonal rains. Union Terminal was created on higher ground, and consolidated all of Cincinnati passenger and freight service. It remained in use as a passenger station until 1972. (See the embedded video at the end of this post for more information on the history of this building.)

The first museum we visited once inside the complex was the Museum of Natural History & Science. This museum was moved to Union Terminal from another location when the Museum Center opened in 1990. One of the highlights is a recreation of a Kentucky limestone cave, which includes 500 feet of tight, twisty passages, an underground waterfall and a flowing river. Another cave is located in the Ice Age section of the museum, where you can walk through a recreated glacier. There are also sections of this museum which explore the human body and teach kids about nature conservation.

The next part of our tour was the Cincinnati History Museum. My wife and I were worried that this would be the least interesting part of the tour for our tween-age children. We were wrong. The first section of this museum houses extensive scale models of the city from 1900 through the 1940's, which have working model trains, inclines and streetcars. The next area is dedicated to Cincinnati during the World War II Era, and includes an actual 1940's streetcar that you can walk through. The highlight of this museum, however, was a recreation of the Cincinnati Public Landing during the 1850's. It has historic storefronts populated with costumed interpreters, and you can climb aboard a replica of side wheel steamboat with a model of the steam engine.

Hit the jump to see more attractions.

Continue reading "A Family Visit to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal" »

Candy Land is one of those kiddie games that seems to immediately divide adults into two camps: those who hate it, and those who loathe it. No, wait...those who love it, and those who loathe it. That's better. Some parents have fond memories of introducing their geeklets to board games with this old standby, while others remember endless requests to play what seems like the most pointless game on earth.

Play This Thing's Greg Costikyan doesn't appear to fall into either camp, but he uses a lot of fifty-cent words to arrive at that conclusion in his 1,300 word analysis of the quest for King Kandy.

"But to think of Candy Land in terms of its dialectical role in acculturating American children to consumerism, or indeed to think of it in mathematical terms, is to consider its external indicia, rather that its pure characteristics as a game qua game. Let us return, therefore, to its formal game nature."

I can honestly say that I never considered either the dialectical role or the mathematical nature of Candy Land, being part of the latter group of adults mentioned earlier. I can also say that Costikyan's prolix exploration of the game's underlying structure and message hasn't made me any more likely to ever actually own a copy of the game. That said, I can also tell you that I'm going to spend the rest of the morning with words like "nugatory" and "ludological" bouncing around in my head. That alone is worth the time to read the post.

(via BoingBoing)

It has been pleasing to keep uncovering new resources and new enthusiasts with an interest in role-playing games for children. The many emails and discussions have lead to new discoveries of people far more qualified than I to talk about role-playing, how to introduce it to children and the benefits and challenges.

The Escapist - http://www.theescapist.com/

Honestly, this has to be one of the best role-playing sites to visit if you want to start role-playing with your kids. Describing itself as a “role-playing advocacy site” and running since 1995 it has a very clear aim: "a web page devoted to the betterment of role-playing games and the education of the public and media of their benefits to society." I really like that vision, the nobility of a paladin in the form of a web page. In the resources section there is a good collection of articles, a FAQ list debunking role playing myths (do we really need to keep explaining that D&D is not satanism, I'm not sure?) and even links to academic studies on RPG.

The best section of the site that should provide inspiration though is the Projects section. This includes "The Young Person's Adventure League" which is a separate part of the site which links to ideas and thoughts on encouraging children to role play and how to do it. It also *promises* a future section on role-playing as an educational activity. Square One is also there, a link to Sam Chupp's podcast. Who is Sam Chupp - ah - that was my next discovery. The podcast's I've listened to are great, including an interview with a history teacher who uses role playing games to teach history to secondary students. The Escapist also runs a podcast - here.

Sam Chupp - kids-RPG

Sam Chupp has been thinking about kids and role-playing for a long time by the looks of it. He has written rpgs and rolled the dice for a long time. He wrote a book with a few others.

He has a kids and role-playing email list. It has been running for over 10 years! You can find out how to subscribe here, but this is also a great list of tips and hint - http://www.samchupp.com/kids-rpg.html

Sam also turned kids-rpg into a livejournal community - http://community.livejournal.com/kids_rpg/ which appears to be pretty much inactive, but a good resource of material remains there.

His tips on role-playing and kids can be found here (scroll down a little) -http://www.samchupp.com/roleplay.html

Sam is a big advocate for girls and women as role players. He writes, " Girls must be encouraged in RPGs because most referees reward aggressive behavior over social behavior.... RPGs for girls do not have to be frilly or pink, just fun in the way they tend to appreciate." Through Sam I found some answers to questions from people asking about role playing with their daughters and wives.

Girls & Role-playing

Sam has a whole page dedicated to the topic - http://www.samchupp.com/womengaming.html

Some good RPGs for girls, that fit with Sam's advice on the type of games that appeal to female sensibilities include:

• Farey's Tale - http://www.firefly-games.com/index.php
• Broomstix - http://www.memento-mori.com/other/games/broomstix_rpg.pdf

There is a lot more out there to support GeekDads and GeekMoms engage their children in role-playing. And, this is more than just good fun. I have been reading a lot from teacher's and educators who use role-playing as a tool in the classroom and value it as a tool for not just teaching children, but continuing to foster  imaginative play. It is in our imaginations that amazing new ideas and possibilities are found, and too much of our education system is about rote learning, rather than exploring possibilities - and RPG can help change that.

I know I'll keep reading and I might report back in a few weeks on role-playing in the classroom, seems like an obvious next post on role-playing and kids.

At least that's the word from videogame site CVG.  The article doesn't give any proof, and the closest thing to a fact included in the story is that they say "they've learnt" HP will be the next LEGO game title.  So pass the salt.  On the other hand, the idea makes some sense - especially considering EA could easily squeeze two games out of the series, just as they did with the Star Wars movies.  And the Potterverse seems pretty perfect for the quirky humor diplayed in the previous LEGO titles.  So, what do you all think?  Would a LEGO Harry Potter series suck $50 out of your wallet?

We want to send all our readers a heads-up.  Starting December 12th, we at GeekDad will be celebrating the 12 Days of Geekmas (or 12DOG, for those in the know).  We will be taking a look back over the amazing year we've had on GeekDad, and giving away some pretty awesome stuff, including special items from Wil Wheaton, ThinkGeek, Arts & Entertainment Television, and many of our HipTrax bands.  So activate the nostalgia circuit, and stay tuned!

As Ken mentioned the other day:

Spacehack is a fantastic new site, billed as "...a directory of ways to participate in space exploration, interact + connect with the space community and encourage citizen science."

Spacehack is the brainchild of Ariel Waldman, recently named one of the most influential individuals in Silicon Valley. Waldman was previously a program coordinator at NASA CoLab, which connects communities inside and outside NASA to collaborate. She agreed to answer a few GeekDad questions about the new site.

GeekDad: What prompted you to set up Spacehack? Did other lists fall short, or was there just nothing like this at all?

Ariel Waldman: It was an idea that was tossed around between some of my former coworkers at NASA and myself. I was part of the NASA CoLab team, whose goal was to encourage collaboration between the public and NASA, so the idea for Spacehack had a strong foundation in that aim. I don't know of other lists similar to Spacehack, unfortunately.

Continue reading "Behind Spacehack: GeekDad Talks to Ariel Waldman" »

More cross number puzzleage. Remember, email your solutions by 10:00 p.m. EST Thursday to be part of the random selection of correct answers and win a $50 gift code to ThinkGeek! All readers who check out the solution on Friday will receive a gift code for $10 off of their next ThinkGeek purchase of $30 or more. Puzzle after the jump.

Continue reading "GeekDad Puzzle of the Week: Cross Number Magic" »

Image via Wikipedia

A guest post by Alex Jarvis.

Batman won't be dead forever.

I am not, to the best of my knowledge, a GeekDad. I am (as of this writing) a twenty-year-old GeekSon to a somewhat repressed GeekDad.  He is decidedly old-school, not entertaining any infatuation with technology (despite dipping his toe into Lake Myspace), instead focusing his nerd-inertia (inerdtia?) on movies, music, and comic books, the latter being an arena we continue to share, and occasionally do battle in.

My real first interaction with hardcore comic books is shamefully recent: for Father's Day 2007,  I bought my Dad his weekly comic pulls as part of a larger gift. I took the brown paper bag home and put it on the table, writing "Happy Fathers Day!" on the outside. One of the books must have fallen out of the bag, or perhaps I could peek at the cover of one of them through the bag itself. When Dad actually did return home, the bag was empty, and I was hooked.

I tore through his collection, wiki'ing any plot points that I missed, learning the importance of the players of the DC universe ( we keep a DC house here; no Marvel allowed, save for the occasional zombified tale) as fast as I could. I tore through his original copies of Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinite Crisis, and every Crisis in between. I poured over 'Hush', 'Birthright', 'Red Son', 'The Killing Joke', 'Emerald Twilight' the Deaths of Barry Allen, Hal Jordan, Superman, and Knightfall. I inhaled '52' in a single night (I know!) and once I was all caught up, I still hungered for more.

And my father? Could not be more proud. After all, he had been feeding me a steady stream of comic-knowledge for years. When I was younger, night-time stories were often set in Metropolis or Gotham, talking about the villains that Batman would vanquish, with me as the impromptu stand-in for Robin. In the basement, his collection of various action figures combined with mine to create fantasy narratives where it was cool if Swamp Thing teamed up with the Green Ranger (driving the Batmobile) against Lex Luthor. I'd don capes and masks made of laundry, using curtain rods as lightsabers against "Darth Jarvis." As we stopped by Eye Opener Comics and Cards near our house, I'd get a Sonic the Hedgehog comic, or sometimes a Star Wars book (Crimson Empire was a personal favorite). As I grew and it became more and more obvious that I would be a Nerd for Life, his comic book hobby continued, and mine began to blossom further.

It is at this point that we both began to realize our differences in comics: my father prefers grand narratives, where there are dark secrets and twisting plot lines, but at the end of the day, the heroes are the heroes: He wants to see Superman fly, see the Flash run, and He wants Batman to be right (and, where warranted, kick a little ass). Canon isn't important: the ins and outs of the story should always be set within a fairly constant world. This makes a lot of sense, considering that it is pretty much how comics were written in the Silver and Bronze age books my dad would read. Sure, Speedy would have a drug problem, or the Teen Titans might shake up their roster from time to time, but there are always constants to fall back on: Bruce Wayne is always Batman, and Clark loves Lois Lane.

I prefer to dig deep with the characters: I want to see them change from issue to issue. I want to see the world as a cohesive, changing unit, where things can really shake up something from book to book. If I drop a stone in the Justice League pond, I want to see its ripples in Action Comics. So for us, events Like Batman R.I.P. are really brutal. Whereas I love to see the experimentation with a character, he will decry it based on years of experience: "They're just doing it to sell comics. He's not gonna die forever." Other times, he'll lament the erasure an important memory of his -- when Barry Allen came back to life, I saw him unleashed.

"Lets get this straight: Barry Allen dies twenty years ago, comes back, but they can't get Barbara Gordon out of the F*@#ng wheelchair?" (It's sentences like that that make me proud to be 50 percent him). He is somewhat ashamed of his hobby, even now that I buy him his books every week, spending more on it than he does. He has joked in the past that my rabid geekishness makes him regret ever reading comics, lest he become what I so clearly am. I've absolutely surpassed him in that aspect- he is not entirely sure what a blog is, or how the Internet works.  Still, comics have given us something important -- a shared lexicon. Every Wednesday, without fail, he'll knock on my door:

"Hey - books come in?"

"Yeah. Titans, Detective, and Final Crisis. Last one is a doo-"

"Shh! Don't tell me. We'll talk about it after."

"Alright, it's awesome though."

"Yeah, yeah."

And twenty minutes later, without fail, we'll argue about it. Maybe we didn't get one part of the story, maybe we didn't like the ending. But those conversations are the geek version of male bonding, a natural extension of his bedtime superhero tales. So what, we rarely threw a ball around in the backyard -- I had Darth Jarvis, and Darth Jarvis was pretty cool. Being the Son of a Geek is a great thing, especially when you consider the action figures and archive of readily available comics. If I do half of as well of a job with my offspring one day as he did, I'll consider myself lucky.

So long as the little guy doesn't F#*@ with my action figures unsupervised.

The story is this.

Not long after we moved to our house in the Box-Ironbark forests of Central Victoria, a friend visited and went for a walk one day to explore the surrounds. Our block of land backs onto State forest which is basically empty government land, not managed particularly well. At different points paddocks make an incursion into the forest, a history of gold-mining and sheep farming in the region. The sheep farmers are still here, the gold miners ghosts merely tourist attractions.

She returned to announce that everyone should walk north and that we could not guess what we would find.   

Well, we did go for that walk, and she was right. After about a mile walking through standard dry Australian bush, we came to a paddock that was deserted. There were no roads, no obvious access to this piece of land, except down the hill a good distance to what we assume is a farmer’s residence.

And, in the middle of this dry old sheep paddock stood a very large gun tree. And, in that gum tree a rusty old car from the 1970s. (Click on the image for full sized picture)

Find the full story of how this came to be, over the fold...

Continue reading "The Whomping Willow is Real! Behold the Car in the Tree" »

As D&D has transformed with its 4th Edition, it should come as no surprise that its core setting, Ed Greenwood's immortal Forgotten Realms setting, transformed along with it.

What's changed? A lot of stuff. In the hundred years since the previous edition of the setting, the goddess of magic Mystra has been killed, unleashing a horrendous Spellplague on the planet, transforming whole nations and altering creatures. In addition, parts of Toril have fused with its long-lost twin world Abeir, whisking away some countries and adding new ones. The Underdark is more open to the surface. Thay has become a nightmare land of death and the Elves, sensing the newfound connection to the Feywild, have returned to Faerûn in force.

That's a lot of change, but probably necessary for a couple of reasons. First, they have to change a lot of stuff to get people to rebuy the product. That's a cynical thing to say, but true -- I could imagine people who've invested in previous versions not wanting to spend more on a new one, but the changes are so profound I couldn't imagine people getting by with a canonical FR campaign without this book. A second, and more benign reason could be that certain changes to magic (in particular) and other game mechanics brought about by the new edition necessitate the transformation of the setting.

I'll tell you what hasn't changed, and that's the basic spirit of D&D. When I cracked the book for the first time, I was gratified to see the first chapter covered Loudwater, a tiny hamlet that serves as the departure point for neophyte adventurers. How classic is that, a tiny town with a delver's tavern filled with intrigue, rumor and level-appropriate threats? What a great way to introduce a new generation of gamers to the revamped setting. The Loudwater chapter also includes some easy encounters to help new players learn the combat system.

From there on the book explores the entire world, planes, the magic, gods, nations, the Underdark. There's also a section covering Abeir, the mysterious twin world that has fused with Forgotten Realms' Toril. Chapter 7 features a compelling subject, Threats -- there can be no heroes without foes to fight. Included are classics like the Church of Bane, Cult of the Dragon, and Drow, along with some new ones (or new to me!) like the Five Companies, pirates sailing in flying ships. And we can't forget Netheril, the lost empire that has unexpectedly returned after millennia of extinction. Less epically, dozens of new monsters are described in this section.

Nearly every aspect of the Realms has changed, and Wizards may be in an uncomfortable pickle with this product, where they strive to explain the epic transformations that have reshaped the world while covering enough to inform newcomers. Some readers complained that the book was too vague, but that seems reasonable to me -- how could you thoroughly describe such a vast campaign setting in one book? Ultimately, the product succeeds at both entertaining old Forgotten Realms players while informing new ones.

Buy the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide on Amazon. Also check out the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide which details playing Realms characters.

Every now and then, I stumble across something that is seriously cool and seriously different.  Where to start with this one? 

Capt'n Eli is the young hero of a new graphic novels series by Jay Piscopo, The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli.  So far, two volumes have been released, with a third due in March, 2009.  The comic is a throwback to the golden age of comics, but Piscopo also incorporates an interesting blend of CGI-style graphics into the drawings.  The combination really works and the series has received glowing praise from the likes of Marvel Comics Editor and Writer, Roy Thomas.  Each of the volumes also includes pinup art from other well-known artists.  I enjoyed reading the comics, which reminded me of a 50s take on Jules Verne with large-scale undersea intrigue in a setting featuring Atlantis and, of course, the heroic efforts of Eli.  My daughter, Natasha (age 8), got hold of my review copies and polished each of the 100+ page books off in single readings- she really liked them and was disappointed to find out I didn't have any more.

The marketing behind Capt'n Eli is state of the art, taking advantage of YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, as well as a series blog.  The web site also features videos of Piscopo at work.  A limited-edition action figure (of the character Commander X) is being released in December.  Trading cards and a board game are also available.  And in an unexpected twist, Capt'n Eli is also the brand name for a line of premium soda and you can watch a video of their bottling line in action.

Which came first, the soda or the comic, plus a win-win holiday promotion after the jump

Continue reading "The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli: Buy a Graphic Novel, Help a Child This Holiday Season" »

GeekDad kindred spirits Paizo Publishing (creators of Planet Stories and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game) are announcing Season Two of their role-playing game writing talent search, RPG Superstar.

As we described earlier this year, Superstar gathered the ideas of hundreds of wannabe game writers together, with multiple rounds weeding out the unfit till only one remained. That lucky writer got a contract to write an adventure module for Paizo.

2009 promises more of the same:

Starting at 2 PM Pacific Time on December 5, 2008, contestants will be able to submit their RPG Superstar entry at paizo.com/rpgsuperstar. For the first round, that entry will be a wondrous item designed for use with Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Each entry must be 200 words or less, and must include all of the proper mechanics and flavor. Contestants must submit their entry by January 2, 2009. Judges will select the top 32 entries to be announced on January 20, 2009; those 32 contestants will be assigned a new design task and their entries will be posted on paizo.com for the public to read, critique, and vote on. The designers garnering the most votes in each round will continue on to subsequent rounds, and the ultimate winner will earn a paid commission to write one of Paizo's upcoming Pathfinder Modules!

So get your brain crankin' and design a wondrous item for round one. Note that all entries become the property of Paizo, so save your really good stuff until you're a game-writing pro!

Download the Beta version of the Pathfinder rules here.

Here at GeekDad we are being inundated with all sorts of possible Christmas Gift ideas by marketing and PR folk from all over the place. You will have seen some of our favorites in our Christmas Gift Guides (most of these suggestions are ones we have discovered ourselves, and have been GeekDad tested, without the help of press releases). Seventeen gift suggestions for GeekMoms can be found here.

One particular idea that has caught our eye is the World Discovery Box.

This simple, yet beautifully designed set of wooden drawers has mashed-up the concept of the Nature Table and the child’s posting box. They provide a world of discovery by introducing a range of interesting species for children to discover from the natural world by simply opening a drawer. The website, the promotional material and indeed the whole package is alluring and for those who have the money to spend this could be a great Christmas gift for the kids.

But, if you do buy one, can you do me a favor? Put away the specimens that come with the drawers.

Continue reading "World Discovery Box takes GeekDad Beyond the Nature Table" »

If you took the geeklets on a long drive over the river and through the woods this holiday weekend, or if you've got some long drives coming up, you can use Google Earth to do super-cool 3D-flyovers of your whole trip. Google Earth has some basic abilities to generate directions itself, but you can also bring multidestination maps over from Google Maps and make your trip flyover easy to make. Let's go through a quick tutorial.

First you'll need to download Google Earth, of course. If you just have one destination then you can do everything inside Google Earth. Simply go to the address bar and choose the "Directions" tab, then put in your starting and ending point, then click on your starting point, then press play. That's it, you've got a 3D flyover of your trip.

If you don't want all the specific highway directions to display, you can simply turn off the checkboxes in the list.

This is a neat feature, but you might already have a carefully tuned multi-destination map all set up in Google Maps. If you'd like to bring that over you'll need to first convert the file into a format that Google Earth can use, called a KML file. First let's expand the simple trip from Santa Clara to Phoenix and add in a stop in Las Vegas and Yosemite.

From here, right-click and copy the link from the Link area on the top right. Now go to this link converter page on Nearby.org.uk, a fun site with lots of Google Earth toys, and paste in your link text from above into the URL section. You'll get a link to a KML file that you can download to your computer. Just open this file in Google Earth and you'll have your customized route ready to fly over. Pick the starting destination and press play and your fly-through will start. Call over the kids and amaze them with your flyover, and teach them a little bit about the Earth while you're at it.

Google Earth is a huge and complex piece of software, and there is a lot more customization you can do from here, including adding your own photos or adding in information from other sites such as Wikipedia. If you want to go further you can find a set of tutorials on the Google Earth site.