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I’ve been thinking a lot about combat systems for roleplaying games, enough that I’ve decided to start a series of blog posts about it. I think everybody who has run a table-top RPG as game master is secretly working on designing their own game, and I’m no exception. I’ve been working on mine off and on for years. Some of my very early blog read...

A while back I promised blog reader Riotimus that I would give some recommendations about roleplaying games for kids. This is a subject I’ve thought a fair bit about, as RPGs are one of my most favorite hobbies. I started on them when I was 10 years old (that totally sounds like I’m talking about drugs—I suppose I may as well be considering how ...

In my past posts on archery speed shooting techniques, I’ve talked about some methods for shooting bows much faster than many people think possible. If you haven’t seen them, there are links at the bottom of this post. But for now, it’s time to visit some ways to speed up the rate of fire for the medieval crossbow. Quick caveat: I’m not an expe...

I’m really not a political person, but I found myself getting caught up in this year’s presidential election. I think it’s because this is the first time I’ve been on Facebook during an election, and it’s hard to ignore all the political mumbo-jumbo that goes on. Even though I generally try not to get into political debates, there are a few subj...

I have seen a number of articles in recent weeks on the topic of whether a computer could write a book. One software company has software that will automatically write newspaper articles on certain topics. A college business professor is working on software that  has already written 200,000 nonfiction books, half of which he has for sale on Amaz...

How do you shelve your books? Today I ran across an amusing article that provides a funny point of view on the question. It’s called People of the Bookshelf, and it opens with a couple who are having an argument about how to organize their books. It’s worth the read—go ahead and take a minute to read it! I admit, I’m tickled by the idea of s...

Can Arrows Penetrate Medieval Armor? I find this question fascinating. As both a gamer and a fantasy writer, I like to get as close to reality as possible, if only to make the fantastic elements of my games and stories that much more fantastic and cool. So a while back, I spent several days researching this question, and I collected a fair nu...

I’ve subscribed to several different VoIP services over the years, from Vonage to Google Talk. Besides being cheaper than regular phone service, VoIP has lots of cool, modern features. Among other things, I like the convenience of accessing my voicemail online. One of the services VoIP companies are trying out these days is automatically transcr...