Useless Trivia Man's page

Hey all,

I wanted to extend an invitation to anybody in the mighty Midwest of the USA - our local gaming convention, XenoCon, will take place May 17-19 at the Milan Community Center in Milan, IL.

We've moved to the Illinois side of the river to a bigger (and much nicer) venue. (Our Facebook Page!)

Our Guests of Honor this year will be Jamie Chambers and Clinton J. Boomer.

Other notable events: The Grindhouse Arena, Pathfinder Society, Magic: The Gathering tournament, the HARPY roleplaying tournament (Pathfinder), and much more!

I'm actually kinda surprised the Six Degrees game wasn't already here, so let's just go ahead and start one! For those who don't know how it works, the rules are simple:

1. Pick any two movie actors.
2. Using movies that they've been in and costars they've had, connect the two in six movies or less. (My family always played it that you couldn't use TV shows, made-for-TV movies, or straight-to-video flicks. And since it's my thread, I'm setting that rule.)

Example: Ashton Kutcher to Bill Murray.

Ashton Kutcher was in Butterfly Effect with Amy Smart.
Amy Smart was in Road Trip with Tom Green.
Tom Green was in Charlie's Angels with Bill Murray.

That one only took three connections, but you can use up to six if you need 'em.

Also, I know there are a couple of search engines out there online that'll actually make the connections for you. Aside from the fact that they usually include TV shows, they're not in the spirit of the game. If you have to use one of them to come up with the answer, you probably shouldn't even try to play. Please don't use 'em.

All that said, I'll throw out the first pitch. I'll even lob an easy one out there for you:

Connect Jack Nicholson to Heath Ledger.

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned Rusty and Company. (A rust monster, a gelatinous cube, and a mimic decide to become adventurers. What's the worst that could happen??) MUCH hilarity. And somewhere in their archives is the Single Greatest Bluff Check Ever.

Weregeek Another gamer/geek/nerd comic. Well written, lots of geekery and laughs.

And lots of the others that have been listed above.

d20 Monkey Another gamer comi... y'know, I think I'm starting to see a pattern here.

I try to like it but it's hard. The art really, really grates on me. He's become very stagnant in his art and needs to break out of his rut. He has technical proficiency in some areas but has severe, glaring flaws such as extremely poor lineweight, frightful composition and levels of detail.

I can't disagree more vehemently. The brilliant stories, the humor, the twists, and (to this reader) the artist's excellent ability have floored me more times than any other webcomic to date.

(I blatantly stole the Axe of Prissan for a home campaign, and once the PC paladin claimed the legendary weapon, only then did I introduce my players to that awesome site.)

I just wanted to bump this to remind anyone interested in making the drive out to Davenport. As one of the guys organizing this thing, I want to see it do well.

Attractions:

- Frank Mentzer (who has just confirmed that he'll be running games at the convention)

- TPK Games

- The Grindhouse Arena

- Pathfinder Society games in every. single. slot.

- Wife Swap: Pirates vs. Ninjas (two tables, two GMs, one really wacky reality-show Savage Worlds adventure)

The first annual Xenocon is set to take place on April 21 and 22 at the Duck Creek Lodge in Davenport, Iowa.

The Guest of Honor for this inaugural convention is none other than Frank Mentzer!

Xenocon Flier

Mark it on your calendars, gamers of the Midwestern US (and anyone else who'd be willing to come out for a small convention)! It's gonna be a great weekend of gaming!

Actually, I won't be able to house-rule it in this instance. This is a detail I needed to iron out for an upcoming convention game I'll be running, and to keep things totally unbiased and fair (and to keep players from going ballistic) I'm gonna have to keep things strictly straight-from-the-book.

Ah well. Guess there just won't be many PCs falling off the central tower.

Pity. ;)

I was recently surprised to learn the exact details of Climb checks for PCs that take damage while climbing. RAW states that a PC that takes damage has to make a Climb skill check; the DC of this check is entirely based upon the difficulty of the surface the PC is climbing. The amount of damage has no effect on this DC.

Did I read this right?? Maybe it's just me, but that doesn't compute. It seems like the DC should be increased based upon the amount of damage the PC takes.

Any sage advice here from smart gamers?