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Ever heard of a Canadian band, Scythia? Neither had I.
Ever heard or read Erik rant about Metal? If you're reading this, of course you have.

Seen this?

io9's article on Canadian folk metal band Scythia's new video Bear Claw Tavern

There's a lot to be said for the Bones minis, even unpainted. (I'm just learning to paint minis myself.)

Before pledging, I visited my FLGS to check out some of the Bones already in stock. The Bones looked very good even unpainted. The detail in the sculpts is very nice and still apparent without washes and paints and highlights.

Bones compared very favorably in my mind to the unpainted miniatures included in the recent D&D Board Games or the older D&D Fantasy Adventure Board Game (and supplements). Simply painting an entire mini one color could also "color code" the minis as is done in the board games.

So this KickStarter provides another option between pawns and Pathfinder Battles helping me ensure my players actually see what is confronting them.

The Adventure Path line is our bread and butter, and if I could get everyone to subscribe to one line, that would be the one. We want to sell more AP volumes, and we don't want to do anything that makes it less likely for players to buy one.

That is really interesting. It slots GMs (and collectors) in as the primary demographic. Rule additions with their power creep and class profusion targeted at players should not have to be a concern if the stories and adventures keep the game fresh.

Perhaps it also means that powerful growth comes mostly from expanding your base of GMs, which is (in part) why excitement generated by the Beginner Box is a tiger's tail.

To be frank, the point of the Beginner Box is to bring new players to the full RPG, and to our Adventure Paths. So once people are comfortable with the basic concepts from the Beginner Box, we want them to move to the full RPG as soon as possible; anything we do that keeps them from migrating to the full RPG is therefore counterproductive to our goals, and a "Beginner Box II", whether that's adding options for Levels 1–5 or adding levels 6 and higher, works against that goal. The goal is teaching you the full game, not giving you a reason not to learn it, or a substitute for it.

Now, we *do* need to provide you tools that ease your migration to the full RPG, and that's where our focus will go with future efforts involving the Beginner Box.

Seeing the success of the Beginner Box as being not only its reduced scope of rules but also its presentation, I had hoped (perhaps blindly) that Sarah Robinson was being drafted to work on the Rise of the Runelords compilation, crafting a bridge between the Beginner Box and the Adventure Paths through clear and elegant formatting that helps the GM.

Erik Mona wrote:

E<snip>

Are you familiar with Edmond Hamilton? Any recommendations?

--Erik Mona

Well, I rather enjoyed the Star Wolf trilogy some years ago - pure space opera from start to finish, so I would think you'd appreciate it.

Star Wolf!

A space opera featuring pirates and mercenaries centered around a protagonist developing morality while benefitting from enhanced strength and reflexes resulting from being raised an orphan in a heavy gravity environment.

(I tell ya... As a source of superhuman power, before there was mutation there was radiation. And before there was radiation, there was gravity! Superman, John Carter, and Morgan Chane--the Star Wolf!)

As a teenager, I found these gems among the miscellany at a rural antique store. The 3 stories were a lot of fun. When my collection was destroyed by water damage during college, I've kept an eye out for a new printing with no luck.

I've been curious to see what Planet Stories picks up from Hamilton.

Russ Taylor wrote:

Erik Mona wrote:

I completely missed it in my youth, too. Perhaps we both grew up in one of those ten-year periods where the books have not been reliably published?

I know the only way I got to read them was from very old editions at our friendly public library.

And I think we're about the same age, so we may be onto something here.

--Erik

I had not thought 1978-1983 was so distant in the past as all that.

In 1978, Del Rey began republishing all 11 books in Burroughs' series, catching my eye at Waldenbooks for two reasons:

• The price was only $1.95 per book when the typical going rate for any book in the Fantasy/Sci-Fi section was $2.95. Saving a buck per book was much kinder to my pre-teen budget.
  
• Michael Whelan did the covers.
  

Decades later, I discovered Burroughs work had inspired another notable artist whom I suspect is only a couple of years younger than me and should be right in line with you whipper snappers.

The application is Windows-only.

However, on Mac OS X, I have simply copied the unprotected PDFs to the hard drive and use Spotlight to search the files. The PDFs do not use any special Acrobat functionality, so I find Preview to be a faster and simpler interface for perusing all the issues.