Yearly Archives: 2008

The Futurists – Rebel

funny pages, , ,

Rebel

From Mike’s Desk

I pulled out my copy of Snarfquest</a href> here the other day. It has always been one of my favorite comics. Drawn by Larry Elmore, it originally ran in Dragon (magazine). Elmore is today perhaps best known as having done the cover paintings for the original Dragonlance novels written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. This strikes me as sort of odd, because the Snarfquest comics are really fantastic.

Beyond the comic’s cult following, other role-playing oriented comics such as Knights of Dinner Table are perhaps better known. The difference between Snarfquest and Knights of the Dinner Table is Snarfquest can be understood outside of a role-playing context. And yet, for those familiar with role-playing games, the comic captures the magic of actual role-playing. As Roger E. Moore points out in the 1987 compilation of the book, “I particularly like Snarfquest because it reads like a parody of a typical fantasy role-playing game, showing how great ends come from small beginnings, with lots of weird stuff in between.”

Mindwarp

the mindlab,

Back in August of 2007, Protozoic conducted an interview with Steve Barnett, the director of Mindwarp. It seems that Mindwarp is going to get screened at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin Texas this Octorber 2! I can’t imagine what seeing Mindwarp on the big screen is like. If you are in Austin then, be sure to check it out.

Here are the details:

October 2, 2008
Alamo Drafthouse
Fantastic Fest
512-912-0529

Also read more about the screening here.

For more information visit www.originalalamo.com.

Time Tripper

the mindlab, , ,

For the past four weeks my friend and I have been playing Time Tripper, a game Elias turned me onto. Time Tripper follows the adventures of a marijuana smoking soldier in Vietnam who travels in time and fights various tripped-out battles. The scenarios range from WWII, to cavemen, to T-Rexes, to really bizzare stuff like something called the Autozoo and King Pong (King Pong gives all new meaning to “tripping balls”).

While I sort of get the sense that Time Tripper is a paper war game aimed at beginners (and the D&D crowd), if you’re like me and grossly unfamiliar with paper war games, be aware that they aren’t the type of things you bust out when you can’t find Jenga for your next dinner party. In addition to being really complex, the rules are far from lucidly written (bear in mind we had two people trying to figure the game out).

If you are up to the challenge, the game is a lot of fun. Though it is a war game, its warped sense of humor make a really fun play once you figure it out, or half-way figure it out like us. If you don’t think you’ll be playing the paper version any time soon, DewKid.com wrote a Java version of the
game. While the Java version does all the calculations for you, its insanely tough (I can make it past 3 boards or so without getting killed in a good game). The coolest thing about the Java adaptation is the graphics for the counters. Now if someone would just do a version of the game for Facebook.

Time Tripping

Protocon 3.0 Rations & Movie

the mindlab, ,

Rations

There has been some concern about the rations that will be passed out at the start of Protocon 3.0. Because we did not receive enough in donations and dues this year, we were unable to use the catering services we have in years past. It would have been wonderful to have prime rib, steamed shrimp and Cool Ranch Doritos at this year’s annual Con, but the cost of such an extravagant meal could not be justified in these bad economic times.

As a result, the difficult decision was made to pass out rations and conserve all available money for other, more necessary purchases. While the exact identity of the rations will not be revealed until the start of Protocon, you may indulge your imagination by thinking of common soldiers during the Civil War. What does this mean for you? If you have special dietary restrictions, are a vegan, do macrobiotics, or want to eat prime rib, then you will need to provide sustenance for yourself.

For those attendees who opt for the rations, they will be eligible for the Hard Ration Award. Any attendee who survives the weekend on rations alone will receive this awesome, once-in-a-lifetime honor. Although it is impossible to speculate the worth of such an award, we would suggest that it would be equal in value to a certificate produced by the Liberian Mint.

Good luck!

Saturday Night Movie

The Swarm, a 2.5-hour blockbuster starring killer bees and Michael Caine, was selected as this year’s Protocon cinematic feast. However, if you have a better suggestion for the Protocon Movie, please let us know. Movie are selected on the following criteria:

  • The movie must fall into the genre of “cult,” “B” or “bad.”
  • The movie must not have been seen by two or more of the attendees.
  • The movie cannot be well known.
  • The movie cannot have been done by MST3K.

All suggestions are subject to personal approval by Tim. Please post your suggestions below.