#245: Geekdom Part II, Garth Sundem, Solai

Podcasts Galactic Watercooler
#61

Audra, Welcome to the wonderful world(s) of role playing games.

DnD is just one of very many RPGs. I’ve got a lot of great character stories like the Falconeer who’s falcon was the most dangerous character in the party, a hyper religious and slightly insane mage, a warrior that hated swords, a mage that had a fear of open spaces and used a crossbow in combat instead of spells.

There are A LOT of different RPGs out there and now that you have a taste, just reading the books that describe the world and environment can be enormous fun. Sci-Fi, Cowboys and Zombies, Vampires, humor, horror, adventure, storytelling, …

My personnal favorite RPG systems are: Earthdawn, Deadlands, Paranoia, Traveller, GURPS, 7th Sea, Legend of the Five Rings. Look them up and you can see a small part of the systems that are out there.

There are others that I’ve played, but these are the ones that I’ve got great stories about. Looking forward to hear the stories you are about to create.

#62

I am a loyal Slater, yes! I don’t follow the Facebook pages, but I did hear Plotz’s Walking Dead bit. He’s an odd one, but I love the feistiness he brings to the political gabfest. And in terms of pop culture, he won a place in my heart by being the only other fan of the defunct TV show Kings.

Back to geekery, one thing I meant to say in my first post was that “coming out” as a geek was never something I struggled with. I came out as as queer at 17, but even when I didn’t have a geek community, I was pretty unquestionably a geek. In fact, it’s much more central a characteristic that defines who I am than my SO’s gender ever could be.

Of course, having your parents tell you Star Wars as a bedtime story gets you prepped from a young age. And inheriting a box of 30 or so fantasy novels from your wacky aunt in the fourth grade helps, too. The ingredients were baked in long before I was editing the literary magazine, sneaking into the science center to watch Firefly on the auditorium screen, dating the president of the college SCA chapter and logging in to GWC.

I know I’m damn lucky to have had it so easy. And part of that is just that I’m awesome, but a bigger part is that geeks just a few years ahead of me paved the way. So, thanks, guys.

#63

I really enjoyed the podcast this week, and 3 whole lovely hours! hell yeah! I really liked the DnD segment although where I live there are no DnDers so I really have to look in to that as I’d love to get on that train like Audra appears to have.

Solai’s segment was very insightful too and overall I really enjoyed it, Chronicles of Narnia should be a cool arc although i remember reading The Silver Chair when i was very small and being pretty confused. I think the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was published first but the Silver Chair was a sort of prequel to it, chronologically speaking. Looking forward to it though and as always adored the 'cast!

#64

I just remembered that there was a BBC series of the CoN when I was a wee lad…

Here’s a link for some youtube videos

Youtube Videos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_(TV_serial)

It even starred Warwick Davis.

#65

Oh Yes! I have that on DVD, I remember it was aired by the BBC on a Sunay night at about 6.00pm in the winter and for the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe there was a very seasonal feel to it, especially when they go through and they are in the fur coats by the lamp post. I guess all of the effects and make up were a little basic but I liked them.

Incidentally, on the subject of roleplaying, ITV in England (which is a terrestrial channel in Ireland too) used to show a programme called ‘Knightmare’ (really cool theme opening) and every week 3 kids would come on. One of them would wear a helmet which covered their heads so they couldn;t see and they were sent into the castle while the others watched and guided them through various puzzles and dangers. it was presided over by a sort of DM style guy with a beard and it was lot of fun, I think it aired originally in the early 90s over here but if you want go on to Youtube and marvel in the early effects!:slight_smile:

#66

Other than the books themselves, I think of the BBC series when I think of CoN. These films are solid, if not fantastic, and I look forward to the arc.

I wonder if we’ll get a Lloyd Alexander arc someday.

#67

That just made my day. Thank you buddy.

#68

Inspired by our newest member Venona, I’ve decided to post a little bit of my own Geekimonial.

One of my earliest memories is being judged for absolutely no reason. I was in parochial school and a group of students decided to ostracize me. Perhaps it was because I was shy. Perhaps it was because I was awkward. Perhaps it was just because they decided to pick on me and I didn’t defend myself or conform to whatever it was they were on about. From that moment on I was literally the odd man out.

I wasn’t invited to parties or allowed to be involved with any social nuance that occurred. To be honest, I was shy and prone to be a bit of a loner anyway. So, it didn’t bother me that much. I learned to accept it because I had witnessed a few people who tried to cross the velvet rope and were burned. I didn’t feel it was worth it.

Thankfully I didn’t grow callous from the experience. I found friends. No man’s an island after all. They were usually younger but I was gracious and fair with every game we played. I often put myself on the weaker team and didn’t mind losing. I never had a competitive bone in my body.

I was never labeled a geek, nerd, or dork. To my peers, I was just weird. I was fine with that since I didn’t consider myself a geek or a nerd. They were intelligent and knew about stuff. The geek/nerd crew tried to welcome me into their hoard but they were too argumentative and elitist. They were always trying to “One Better” each other. Not my scene, man. And the dorks were like lost puppy dogs who found a friend but all they did was complain about everything.

So, I remained weird. I am thankful to have found this community because GWCers do the weird stuff.

#69

I’d kill to relive the end run of Mass Effect again. I was LITERALLY yelling and punchin the air when the 1st Fleet came in.

Same way I felt when the bucket was 40,000 feet fallin like a rock

#70

Liking the Zooey Deschanel love. The band She & Him is a bit too cute for me, but her acting roles have always been quite engaging, from Elf to (500 Days of) Summer.

#71

I don’t know how it was for everyone else but when I was a kid if I wanted to see a game of D&D being played I simpy had to hang around the local comic book shops late at night. Inevitably five or six guys would loom out of the darkest corners of the shopping mall carrying dice and boards and notebooks, set up shop and get to work.

It was an awesome spectacle.

To this day if you want to get in on the action one need only call the local comic/hobby/video game store and find out where “the game” is going to be this week. Sweet.

I was talking about D&D with my brother (He was the D&D player in the family) just a few minutes ago. I was lamenting his lack of proximity to my person thereby extinguishing any hope I have of playing D&D with him and wishing someone would create an iPhone or Android app allowing us to play a game of D&D at leisure (log into the game once a day and see what’s been done since your last turn, take your turn and log out, really simple stuff, yaknow?). When I was done complaining and wishing for better geek connectivity he informed me that back in the day he was part of a ring of guys (possibly gals, hard to say) that played D&D on a bulletin board system (you young folks can think of a BBS as the prescursor to the forum you’re looking at right now).

How awesome must it have been to fire up the dial up mod/dem, log into a BBS, smite a goblin in text-only, and revel triumphantly at 9600kb/s? Oh man, it doesn’t get much more romantic than that… ooh, think about the green text on a black background and blinking cursor…, or the white text on BLUE screen background decorated with PIPES!!! Filled in with YELLOW text blocks!!!

Oh man, I’m geeking out and getting excited again… Thanks for not pointing and laughing. :smiley:

#72

9600? 9600? Oh, he had it good.

#73

I played a few weekly games over AIM chat for like 6 months could do that

#74

We had 300 baud. AND WE LIKED IT!

#75

I have read that some gamers have been using Google Wave to conduct their D&D games.

#76

Yeah, but he had to walk up hill both ways in 6 feet of snow and 100 degree heat to get to that 9600!

A BBS was my source for the news that the first SCUD missile came down in Kuwait.

#77

Huh, you said “…BS.”

#78

Ha. I remember my first 300 baud modem…had a manual switch on it. You had to listen to the CHRSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHHSHSHS and when you thought the two computers were talking you flipped it. Seriously.

…yeah, had to throw that away quickly.

#79

I was always jealous of people that had that type of modem because of the movie Wargames. My modem plugged right into the phone line, but it was still 300 baud. I even remember my first BBS: Twin Cities Computer Network (TCCN). I also was able to participate in Gophernet from the University of Minnesota.

Does anyone remember getting kicked off their dial-up because the phone connection was too noisey?

#80

Never happened to me, but I knew it was an issue. I think I lived in a town that was just small enough so that I dodged that bullet.