Author: dhenke

Email: dhenke@mythopoeic.org

Why the Password-Protected Posts?

Things change, and change is bad.

One bad change you may have noticed is that a handful of the posts here are now password-protected. This isn’t something I’m especially happy about, since these posts are about things I think are cool, and which I want to share with everyone. But someone smart (and with a significant stake in the matter) made the case that these posts also leaked information which could put me and others at risk.

I’ve tried to adopt the most measured response that still fixes the problem: hide only the posts I have to, and put those behind a wall rather than destroy them entirely. While I hope this is the last time I’ll have to do this retroactively, we don’t always get what we want or expect.

If you see a password-protected article, and have reason to believe I know and trust you, then you can always send email and ask for the password. Unless that trust is already established, though, you’re wasting your time — if it were something I could show to just anybody, I’d already be doing that.

Why No Amazon Links?

Over on the philosophy page, I said I wouldn’t do political stuff here. And this is political — after a fashion — for which I apologize. I don’t intend to make it a habit. But on sober reflection, I’ve been doing something wrong, and it’s my responsibility to correct it, and to explain the reason for the change.

In brief, I’m removing all links to amazon.com from posts I’ve written here. Please read on after the jump if you’d care to know why.

Continue reading Why No Amazon Links?

Duncan and Mallory

As you know, Bob, Duncan & Mallory is a collaborative comic created by Mel White and Robert Lynn Asprin. Set in a not-quite-Earth fantasy setting of ambiguous place and time, it concerns the adventures of one Duncan (disgraced human warrior) and J. P. Mallory (small silver dragon temporarily between jobs). Released in 1986 by Starblaze, it never achieved the notoriety widespread recognition it (IMHO) deserves.

What you may not know (comma Bob comma) is that it is now being re-released, on the web, a bit at a time, for free. More details after the jump.

Continue reading Duncan and Mallory

Practice Random Acts of Disdainfulness

Not this sort of text-based game.

Upstart start-up Choice of Games offers up a fine debut effort with the text-based (but tasty) Choice of the Dragon. Versions are available for the iPhone and Android, or you can play in your Javascript-enabled browser for free. The game owes some of its narrative structure to the old choose-your-own-adventure paperbacks, but adds some CRPG flexibility — mostly behind the scenes, so you need never worry about the mechanics.

In my opinion, more RPGs should track “disdain” as a stat. I certainly found this one worthy of repeated playthroughs. Via io9 by way of Gizmodo.