Housekeeping...

I've changed around some of the links in the menus on the right side of the page and added a couple of categories.  I might be moving a few other items around, or changing the template of the entire blog to something else.  I'd like a template that is a little more tidy and shows more of the links without a lot of scrolling.  Any comments, stick them here.

Solomon Kane RPG art preview

The folks at Great White Games just posted a three-page PDF preview of art from the forthcoming Savage World of Solomon Kane RPG due next year. It's difficult to judge these without context; most are so-so but a couple are really great. The first bit of art that was seen at Gen Con '06 -- Kane blasting at ghouls on page one of this preview -- is still the best so far.

Heavy Metal Fantasy D & D

At the last goober pizza night, I spent some time talking to Derek about present and possible future campaigns, and somehow we got on this topic. He mentioned how he'd want to run a campaign like this, and we discovered that we had both read the same thread on Rpg.net.

What am I talking about? Read a bit of that thread linked to above for more, but basically it would be a outlandish, gonzo, heavy metal rock fantasy game -- much more over-the-top than the wildest Conan comic or pastiche, more like Wagner's Kane stories or Lin Carter's Thongor. Imagine having adventures in the worlds depicted on rock album covers by artists like Roger Dean or even Frazetta -- shaking the pillars of Heaven and knocking down the very gates of Hell itself. The kind of campaign you wanted to play in when you were 12. Now you understand...

Update: Rodney Matthews' art, too!

And on a related note, for Derek (and the rest of you dear readers), I present The Ronnie James Dio Lyric Generator (scroll past the server errors).

Trek Remastered -- "The Corbomite Maneuver"

Saturday night's episode was "The Corbomite Maneuver". This was the first regular episode filmed for the series after the pilots ("The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), and a frequently-cited fan favorite. As usual, the review can explain it all much better than I can -- dialogue, lighting and camera angle choices, and much more. It's been years, literally, since I've seen this one, so I had forgotten some of the dialogue and situations, especially between Kirk and McCoy. Even with some slight differences you can already see the interplay between the characters is strong.

I haven't even mentioned the updated effects! CBS Digital just keeps getting better and better. It's also nice that, with the original interiors being so well done for the time, the new effects blend easily into the overall look of the show. "Corbomite" is an outstanding entry in the series.

Pour yourself some tranya and take a look at the screenshots and FX video.

Trek Remastered -- "The Menagerie, Parts 1 and 2"

The new episodes from last weekend and this past weekend were "The Menagerie, Parts 1 and 2". These are a couple of great eps that use footage from "The Cage", the original unaired Trek pilot. Just taken on their own, these are wonderful self-contained sci-fi stories, but they really add depth and history to the Trek universe. I have to agree with one comment on Trekmovie.com which said that The Cage and Forbidden Planet are a perfect double-feature. I can see many similarities in the style and the look of them.

Part 1 had more updated effects shots than Part 2, including the fantastic backgrounds for Starbase 11, the shuttlecraft, and the fly-through transition from outside onto the bridge of Pike's Enterprise.

• Screenshots from Part 1 and 2
• Reviews of Part 1 and 2

Next week, "The Corbomite Maneuver"! The rest of December will be reruns of previous eps, but all of them are good.