New York OA Trader

Collecting New York State OA, one patch at a time.

Archive for the ‘Science Fiction/Fantasy’


March 18th, 2008

Arthur C. Clarke - RIP

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a titan of science fiction is best-known for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick in writing the landmark film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” passed away. He was 90.

The British-born Clarke, who lived in Colombo, Sri Lanka, for decades, died early Wednesday after experiencing breathing problems, an aide, Rohan De Silva, told the Associated Press.

Among his best-known science-fiction novels are “Childhood’s End,” “Rendezvous With Rama,” “Imperial Earth” and, most famously, “2001: A Space Odyssey.”


Creative Commons License photo credit: sarvodaya.org

Clarke is seated on the right.

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Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke, “Profiles of The Future”, 1961 (Clarke’s third law)
English physicist & science fiction author (1917 - 2008 )

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March 5th, 2008

RIP Gary Gygax Part II

Earlier I posted that Gary Gygax one of the founders of Dungeons and Dragons had passed away. Of course the flood of D&D related jokes would follow. Here are some of them.

  1. “Quick! Someone cast Raise Dead!”
  2. “Don’t worry – he’s just playtesting the Astral Plane for the next edition.”
  3. “He’s gone the way of Star Frontiers.”
  4. “Analysts warn of a free-fall in Mountain Dew futures.”
  5. “In the next town, you meet a stranger named Barry Bygax.”

Follow the link for the rest.

Gary Gygax did lose his final saving throw.

Creative Commons License photo credit: Benimoto

March 5th, 2008

RIP Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax, ‘Father of D&D,’ Dies at 69


Creative Commons License photo credit: Benimoto

Gary Gygax, one of the co-creators of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, died Tuesday morning at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, according to Stephen Chenault, CEO of Troll Lord Games.

Gygax designed the original D&D game with Dave Arneson in 1974, and went on to create the Dangerous Journeys and Lejendary Adventure RPGs, as well as a number of board games. He also wrote several fantasy novels.

Many an evening spent around a table top with a group of friends on a dungeon crawl. Nights at camp with a lantern over a picnic table or in a cabin late at night after the campfire.

What D&D Character Are You? 

I Am A: Neutral Good Dwarf Cleric/Sorcerer (3rd/3rd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-13
Dexterity-11
Constitution-14
Intelligence-16
Wisdom-11
Charisma-14

Alignment:
Neutral Good A neutral good character does the best that a good person can do. He is devoted to helping others. He works with kings and magistrates but does not feel beholden to them. Neutral good is the best alignment you can be because it means doing what is good without bias for or against order. However, neutral good can be a dangerous alignment because because it advances mediocrity by limiting the actions of the truly capable.

Race:
Dwarves are known for their skill in warfare, their ability to withstand physical and magical punishment, their hard work, and their capacity for drinking ale. Dwarves are slow to jest and suspicious of strangers, but they are generous to those who earn their trust. They stand just 4 to 4.5 feet tall, but are broad and compactly built, almost as wide as they are tall. Dwarven men value their beards highly.

Primary Class:
Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron’s vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity’s domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric’s Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

March 2nd, 2008

Interview with J R R Tolkien

Found this interview with J R R Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings in 1968 and Adam Tolkien in 2007 on the release of The Children of Hurin.

Not sure if you have read his latest, The Children of Hurin.

The Children of Hurin, begun in 1918, was one of three ‘Great Tales’ J.R.R. Tolkien worked on throughout his life, though he never realized his ambition to see it published. Though familiar to many fans from extracts and references within other Tolkien books, it has long been assumed that the story would forever remain an unfinished tale.

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I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
E. B. White
US author & humorist (1899 - 1985)

 

 

December 22nd, 2007

The Hobbit - The Movie or Two Movies?

For those Tolkien fans who may have missed the announcement!

Peter Jackson has won the battle for Middle-earth and is to make The Hobbit.

The Oscar-winning Wellington film-maker and Hollywood studios New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios announced today that they had resolved their legal dispute. Jackson and partner Fran Walsh will serve as executive producers on two Hobbit movies.

Pre-production will begin as soon as possible and both will be shot simultaneously, tentatively in 2009. The Hobbit is likely to be released in 2010 and the sequel in 2011.

Huh!?!? Two Hobbit movies?

Critics and audiences cited New Zealand’s scenery - a major component in The Lord of the Rings - as one of the main reasons for the films’ popularity. Equally popular were the Oscar-winning effects created by Wellington’s Weta Workshop and Weta Digital.

For those can’t wait until 2010 and who need a more regular fix you can check out:

The Hobbit Blog

There are already a couple of hundred comments and speculation.