Rob (rpmiller): My Career (or Hobby) in Gaming

My career, or rather hobby, in gaming started in the late 70s when a fellow classmate, and good friend, asked me if I wanted to come to his house after school because his brother and he were looking at this new game called Dungeons & Dragons. That was fifth grade. Three decades later, and I am still enjoying the hobby although my time is vastly reduced thanks to that thing they tell us about as children, but we seem to disbelieve, called responsibility.

Welcoming a New Team Member to the Dice of Life

You may have seen Rob's name among the list of TDoL Staff in our sidebar but without any posts attached to his name until now. Despite the lack of posts, you actually have seen his work. That's because Rob has been our new editor for a bit of time, and just recently a new author for The Dice of Life.

Old Memories, New System

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to play Swords & Wizardry: White Box, and the experience was very enjoyable. It brought back memories of my younger, less hectic life, and it was nice to just role-play without becoming engrossed in minutia of mechanics. Primarily Swords & Wizardry has that old school RPG nostalgia with a certain freshness of simplification.

Gaming with Google Docs, Part 2

In Part I of this article, we covered some basic ways Google Docs can be used to facilitate and coordinate your role-playing game. Specific examples included handouts, campaign notes, and player character backgrounds as well as folders/tagging and mobile access to your documents.

In this article, we'll take a look at some of the more advanced tools available in Google Docs such as forms for collecting or archiving information, spreadsheets for basic accounting, using presentations for campaign intros and segues, using drawing tools for creating maps and illustrations, and accessing your material offline.

Review of Kobold Quarterly #10 (Summer 2009)

This week we take a look at Kobold Quarterly #10, a gaming magazine created by Wolfgang Baur. With the ideas, articles, editorials and even locations, the magazine is a perfect match for the time-strapped gamer.

Sweet Spots for the Time-Crunched Gamer: Weeknights, Nine To Midnight

So you've tried all the automation tips and game systems we've discussed and still can't get your group together to game. What's an RPG enthusiast to do? You're now battling the toughest constraint of all, which is time itself.

Returning to Our D&D Roots: An Experience with Swords & Wizardry

What could be easier than returning to your roots and playing a game most of us grew up playing?Picking up a a free copy of Swords & Wizardry, that's what!

RPGs Designed for Busy Adults

Obviously, that's what The Dice of Life is about, but I found two great posts on two other blogs, one in response to the other, discussing RPGs designed for busy, adult gamers. Hey, that's our target audience! Coincidentally, these were posted on the same week The Dice of Life launched.

Interview with Paul 'Wiggy' Wade-Williams of Triple Ace Games

Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams is one of the most prolific writers in the gaming industry. If you don't believe it, just Google his name and count the products he's authored. Wiggy has played RPGs for over twenty-five years and has been a published author since 1998, having written for Atlas Games, Eden Studios, Britannia Games Design, Kenzer & Co., Pinnacle Entertainment Group, and Green Ronin.

He and his wife of seven years, Maggie, live on the Shetland Islands where life is slow, the community spirit is strong, the folk are friendly, and the scenery is beautiful. While not participating in the annual tradition of burning a Viking Longship, Wiggy serves as the creative director for Triple Ace Games, producing such titles as Hellfrost, Daring Tales, Necropolis, Sundered Skies, and Wonderland No More.

Recently, Wiggy took time out of his busy production schedule to answer a few questions for The Dice of Life.

1PageAdventures: The Innsmouth Lighthouse

This 1PageAdventure takes place in a lighthouse that has been overrun by vile cultists of the worse and slithery sort. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to explore... The Innsmouth Lighthouse?

Do Single Parents Game (via Outsyder Gaming)?

I stumbled across an interesting post via the RPG Blogger Network's feed regarding single parents and gaming. With the mission of The Dice of Life in mind, I decided to start that same conversation here as it's something with which I have no knowledge or experience but in which I am greatly interested.

Friday Fiction: The Iron Cross on Saturn's Rings, Part 3 of 3

Previous Chapters:

1. Part 2
2. Part 1

Skawk squatted quietly near the edge of the skyland, meditating with his wings wrapped around him. A few large raindrops fell, but the storm was almost over. A foggy mist took its place. Such was the nature of Saturn's storms. Night was fast approaching on the planet which spun rapidly on its axis. The phosphorescent floating plankton were already glowing giving a yellowish tint to the surroundings. Somewhere off in the distance, a lone air whale sang its mournful song. Skawk heard an answering song and could tell by the whale song the two were an unpaired male and female. He hoped their meeting went well. Their population dwindled greatly during The Great Solar War.

The birdman heard the Nazi engine long before he saw the ship. Its black and red bullet-shaped fuselage appeared out of the mist moving slowly toward his small skyland. Thrusters vented exhaust downward and sidewards rotating the ship until the Nazi swastika showed on each of the ship's four tail fins. Landing skids extended from beneath the ship's nose and just fore of its engines. It landed in a cloud of mud that kicked up from the soaked ground of the skyland. The engine noise faded and the hatch of the Nazi ship opened. Skawk heard territorial challenge squawks from the skyland's other inhabitants. He prayed to the Skylord that the Nazis didn't have a naturalist on board who knew the squawk's meaning.

Gaming with Google Docs, Part 1

Google Docs is a flexible suite of online Office-like applications. Its list of applications includes spreadsheets, documents (including PDFs), presentations, and forms. Not only can you create original files in Google Docs, but you can also import files created in your favorite office application including OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office (including 2007).

Google Docs also grants you the ability to save documents to a file on disk and includes formats such as HTML, DOC, PDF, and more. In this article, we discuss some of the basic uses for Google Docs and how they can apply to your RPG campaign.

Interview with Shane Hensley, Creator of Savage Worlds

Because TDoL is dedicated to games and technology for the time crunched gamer, we thought an interview with Shane Hensley, creator of one of our favorite game systems, was in order.

Sweet Spots for the Time-Crunched Gamer: Savage Worlds

In this week's Sweet Spot's article, we take a look at Savage Worlds and how this "Fast, Furious, and Fun!" game system can be a Sweet Spot for the Time-Crunched Gamer.

Friday Fiction: The Iron Cross on Saturn's Rings, Part 2 of 3

Previous Chapters:

1. Part 1

Commander Stryker strode the bridge of the Rocketship Achilles. The converted passenger ship served its purpose well after the passenger deck was refitted with holding cells and its cargo bay filled with the books and artifacts needed for his research. He adjusted his SS hat to the proper jaunty angle and made sure every part of his uniform was in order. "Status!" he shouted. The crew responded best when yelled at.

Gaming with Google Calendar

It's probably challenging enough to keep your life organized as is with a full work schedule, keeping your home, spending time with family, errands, social occasions, and so much more. Add your kid's schedule into the mix, and you see your open time slots dwindling away. In between all of that, you want to be able to schedule a game with your gaming friends' who might have busy schedules of their own. Google Calendar to the rescue!

Ignore This Post

Grrr... Apologies for the confusing post, folks. Apparently, Google's advice isn't always the best. While Blogger redirects its own feed to the new feed, it also replaces the feed URL discovered by browsers. In essence, it means that while some subscribers might be using the original URL, others will still be grabbing the Feedburner URL, creating a mixed subscriber base.

Summary: Stick with the Feedburner URL by subscribing to http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheDiceOfLife. I promise I'll never switch.

We're on Twitter!

The Dice of Life is now on Twitter!

Editorial: The Kübler-Ross Model and You

This article was inspired by a forum post in a thread about The Dice of Life.

I am really digging this blog, but it is totally depressing me. Half of the articles are about why as you grow up you must eventually experience the slow death of your gaming life as your social life is rent into itty bitty pieces and sacrificed to your kids and spouse. The other half is about all the tools that can prolong this slow death by playing your rpgs through various networking media.

I choose option #2!

Interview with Trevor Croft, creator of MapTool

With a full-time job, a newborn baby, and a virtual tabletop software application project all consuming his schedule, Trevor Croft, creator and caretaker of MapTool, was kind enough to take a few moments from his own busy life to answer a few questions for The Dice of Life.

MapTool for Face-to-Face Role-Playing Games

It's no secret that we're fans of MapTool. Well, did you know that MapTool also works for face-to-face RPG sessions as well as those online? As a followup to the Sweet Spot article about MapTool, I'll tell you how you can leverage this marvelous free tool for your next face-to-face game.