The Astounding Mr. Goodner's Amazing Electric Widgets - News and Announcements

Hey, Look at This: FlamingText Logo Designer

David Goodner — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 04:55:21 GMT

While working on the Hybrid draft, I found this little gem on the web: http://www1.flamingtext.com/All-Logos

It makes cool logos, like all the kids with the time and patience to learn Photoshop can do.

Like this one, for example.

(But I'm not bitter)

Brief Bones Review

David Goodner — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 03:00:39 GMT

So, my Bones are unpacked. My, there are a lot of them. I can just imagine how many the people who bought extras have.

Almost all the figs are great. The new sculpts range from pretty darn good to awesome. The Bones plastic holds detail pretty well, not quite as good as metal, but servicable for most things. Where it seems to hit its limits is on very small pieces-- not small details on large pieces, but on actual small extrusions of plastic. So the awesome runes on your great sword will look fine, but the thin, delicate hands of your elf-maid may look a little sketchy.

(But I haven't painted them yet. The white material may just be losing some details to my 42-year old eyes.)

The gryphon requires some assembly, and the pieces went together beautifully.

There is a little bit of flash on some pieces, which I hadn't seen on any of the promotional Bones figs. You'll probably be able to take care of it with a fresh hobby knife blade and a steady hand. A slightly bigger problem is the warping that occurred during shipping. I have several figs with bent swords, staves, and so on. And one figure is bent over so severely she won't stand up. The same thing happens with metal figures, but with the plastics it's a little tougher to fix (requiring a heat source)

My entirely non-scientific rating is 5 stars. The figs are pretty much perfect for what they are: a cheaper alternative for minis. I expect to be buying more of two categories. Large/giant figures are better to me as Bones than as Metal, being both cheaper and lighter. Among the human-sized and smaller figures, I'm interested in stocking up on anything I can't get pre-painted. I bet iI'll buy more of the dungeon furniture stuff and the bugs, slimes, monsters and so on. (All the NOVA dudes, multiple times. And I think I may need more than one cyber-gorilla)

For "personality" figures like a player's personal PC or a really major NPC, I'm more likely to go with metal still-- but I'll say in quite a few cases the Bones fig would be fine. The PC-worthy figures are the ones I plan to paint last, keeping them unpainted to offer to players for various games that use minis.

So great job, Reaper Guys! I'll see you at paint club.

Forever.

Them Bones, Them Bones

David Goodner — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 02:31:24 GMT

(Oh hey, it's been an entire month. I suck.)

This just arrived in my email box:

Hi there! We're shipping out your Kickstarter stuff!

You're getting:
vampire x1

Your shipment was postmarked on 04-02-2013 and is being shipped UPS Ground.

And this:

This message was sent to you at the request of Reaper Miniatures, Inc. to notify you that the electronic shipment information below has been transmitted to UPS. The physical package(s) may or may not have actually been tendered to UPS for shipment. To verify the actual transit status of your shipment, click on the tracking link below or contact Reaper Miniatures, Inc. directly.

That means a zillion (about 200) minis will be at my house in the next day or so.

And I intend to paint all of them.

I have no idea how long it will take me, but I'm going to do it. And I'll post pictures here.

David G.

Things I don't have time for

David Goodner — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 02:06:01 GMT

Here's a thing I don't have time for: Learning Math.

I like to design board games. I think I've mentioned that before. Primarily, I like to design abstract games that I can imagine are played in fantasy settings the way that Chess or Go are played in the real world. I also kind of like to design European style board games and Looney Labs-style parlor games-- but I have yet to succede at that task. Two of the really cool ideas I had turned out to be already done by someone else. (I do feel slightly better in learning that they were almost exactly the same as my ideas, which means my ideas were probably pretty good.)

The thing is, game design is basically math. A cool idea will get you started, but if anything it's even less important than it is in writing. The guts of making a game work come from math.

Thus, my game design efforts often come to naught. But, as it happens, I don't really have time to be a game designer, either.

I still suck at updates

David Goodner — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:18:52 GMT

And here's the entry I meant to post yesterday. In my defense, I had a sudden influx of family that threw my schedule off. I also found out my GF's grand-baby calls me Papa David, which is both adorably cool and terrifying.

That was fun. Let's try another classic blog post.

That thing you like sucks. This other thing is much better because of [unquantifiable personal preference]. People who like that thing you like are stupid, just like [persons belonging to a social group it's not acceptable to insult]. And if you say anything about my baseless accusations or vile attacks then you're just an idiot who can't tell how cool I am.

[remark about your mother's sexual habits]

...hmm...

I may not be cut out for the life of a blogging celebrity.

I suck at updates

David Goodner — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 01:35:06 GMT

So, I've pretty much got the "write a blog entry every day M-F" thing down, but I'm having trouble with the "post a blog entry to your blog every time you write one" thing.

So here's yesterday's entry, which I actually wrote yesterday.

Tomorrow, you'll get today's entry, which I also wrote yesterday - making my failure to post anything even worse.

Another day, another lame blog entry.

All the famous, successful bloggers seem to use a sort of confessional style, relating interesting or insightful anecdotes about their lives. So I'll try that.

Today, I didn't want to get up for work. Then I remembered that if I stopped working, I wouldn't be able to buy catfood, and if I stopped feeding my cat, she'd murder me in my sleep and eat my corpse. So I got up.

I'm not sure it was worth it.

None Too Fond of Tuesdays, Either

David Goodner — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 03:59:50 GMT

Substantive is such a nebulous word, don't you think?

Last night, I was wracking my brain for a good novel idea. One from the depths of forgotten memory rose to the surface just as I was going to bed. I stayed up for another half-hour trying to write enough down that I'd remember it the next morning.

(One of life's ironies is contained in the above sentence. I will likely never read what I wrote down. Just writing it was enough to cement the idea in my brain overnight.)

I've been chipping away at the idea all day. It's this weird, multi-layered story taking place across several points in time. My brain hurts.

Maybe it's not too late to go back to the one about the young girl who defies traditional genre expectations by being super-powerful so she's the only one capable of slaying demons or something. There's not too much of that around, is there?

I hate Mondays

David Goodner — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:29:01 GMT

The D/FW Writer's Conference is coming up in May. I'm signed up this year, so I feel like I really need a novel to pitch.

The available choices do not look good. I think I'm going to spend whatever of this month I don't spend writing a short story trying to pick one of my ineumerable stupid ideas and whipping it into shape.

Next month's short story will be a revision unless I just get crazy-productive. I need to do about a 25% rewrite of December's story. Dropping the stupid framing device means I have to rewrite the ending. And I think the new ending will be better. The current one is a little ham-handed.

This month's short story is a sequel to December's story. I think I have a neat set-up for a series of short stories, but I'm trying not to force it. After this next one, I don't have an idea for a third.

Failing Failure who Fails

David Goodner — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 03:50:09 GMT

I actually had an entry for Friday, but the internet ate it. Sorry.

It was kind of lame anyway. Mostly, I was going to tell you that I was likely to take off weekends on this daily blog thing. Saturdays and Sundays are kind of busy, and I don't want to spend them in front of the computer all the time, current evidence to the contrary.

So anyway, I had a car accident today - the other guy's fault, so I hope his insurance takes care of it. I hope my car doesn't end up being totaled (a small chance, but possible).

A thing I learned today is that it's a good idea to do more than text your girlfriend with the message "I had a car accident. I'm fine."

I don't think we planned this out very well

David Goodner — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:46:55 GMT

When someone was making up his resolutions yesterday, he didn’t consider the fact that Wednesdays are incredibly busy for him. That person is now squeezing out a blog entry in the tiny bit of free time he managed to wrangle.

He also didn’t consider what kind of stuff he’d put in his blog on a daily basis. And he is now switching from third to first person, because that joke is pretty much played out.

Gaming stuff has been a mainstay of my blog from the beginning, but as I pursue the goal of becoming a published author I wonder if I should be giving it away for free. I suppose it’s a kind of portfolio, but I’m going to be looking into slightly more legitimate types of publication. Since Unisystem doesn’t have a dedicated fan license, I may not be posting as much Unisystem stuff. (Some still, of course. I loves me some Unisystem, and a total revision ha been percolating in the back of my brain)

I also used to post fiction. Now I figure I should actually submit anything I think is good enough to post for publication. So a goal for this week is to get my list of publishing contacts together. (That sounds a lot more exciting than it is. All I’m doing is looking in The Writers’ Market for places that publish the kind of things I write.)

One more big thing is on the burners, but I don’t want to talk about it lest I jinx it. Fans of that boring quiet guy on Radio Free Hommlet might be pleased, though.

New Year's Resolutions

David Goodner — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 18:46:06 GMT

I don't do New Year's Resolutions. Whenever I try, I always fail. So really, I'm just setting myself up for disappointment and failure here. Nevertheless...

I resolve to post something to my poor, neglected blog every day, and at least once a week it will be something substantive.

I also resolve to either write or revise a short story every month. If possible, I'll do both, but I'm still working out the details on how fast I can get through the revision cycle. And I also have this nebulous goal of writing a novel that's worth reading, and that takes some more time. So I'll go easy on myself for the official resolution and say I get one month to write a story, and another month to revise it.

That adds up to at least six submissions this year. So I resolve that as soon as I have a story finished, I'll submit it, and I'll keep submitting it until it's published (or until I give up and go cry in my room).

(Note to self - get a copy of The Writer's Market and work out some kind of submissions schedule. Self sucks at organization)

Okay. That's enough failure for one year. See ya'll later. I hope you all enjoyed your black-eyed peas.

Blah-g

David Goodner — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:48:07 GMT

I need to find something to blog about. Being an internet celebrity would be fun, and way less stressful than being a real celebrity. But to do that, I need legions of adoring fans (or at least Twitter followers)

Five Minute Fiction was fun, but I can only do that really well when I'm not trying to write something major (which I currently am). Maybe I'll try... (gasp) actual blog entries where I talk about stuff that interests me.

That's probably just crazy talk, though.

And now we're back again

David Goodner — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 01:39:36 GMT

The second unscheduled interruption has finally ended. This one was all my fault. I'll try to get back to regular updates as soon as I can think of something cool to post.

PSA

David Goodner — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 19:45:05 GMT

This week's blog update will be delayed slightly, due to stuff.

See, the thing is I've recently decided to give Savage Worlds a go. I bought it at Gen Con along with the supers companion. As a way to dig into the system a little, I've decided to rip off Theron Bretz' idea on his "My Dice are Older Than You" blog of posting supers characters (and maybe some other characters, as the mood strikes me). But one thing is holding me back.

I didn't have room to get the stuff I bought at Gen Con into my bag for the trip home, so I sent Savage Worlds home with a friend who was driving. (Thanks, LJ!) I'll be taking possession tomorrow, if nothing goes wrong.

So I'll probably have something to show you on Monday or Tuesday.

If I feel guilty enough, I might upload the last few Gen Con pictures I have, but I didn't take many, and they're really pretty boring.

GenCon 2011 Photodump

David Goodner — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 23:50:51 GMT

I don't take a lot of pictures, but I have taken a few. Here they are, for your amusement and occasional horror.

First of all, a lovely picture of the state of Oklahoma. I've never seen it looking better.

Here's Tim (DM Tim of Radio Free Hommlet)

Here's the Doctor Who collectables booth. The TARDIS has been around for years, but the Dalek is new.

This was a small fragment of the crowd at the opening ceremony yesterday. Thank GOD I got to be a VIG companion this year, and thus had no reason to stand in it.

The new sculpture for the alcove where the Westin skyway meets the convention center.

The villains of my childhood. To simply look at them was to hear outraged screeching in the echoes of my memory.

That's just a little of the cool stuff I've seen. I'll probably take a few more pictures tomorrow.

Darnit

David Goodner — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:41:11 GMT

Something is wrong with the Oraculator. It works on my computer, but it won't download for some reason. I presume I did something wrong when publishing it. I'll try to figure it out in the near future. Till then, I suppose you'll have to rely on tarot cards and bird entrails for all your divinatory needs.

David G.

Shiftways for your perusal

David Goodner — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 14:34:48 GMT

Things are still quiet around here. We're leaving for Gen Con on Wedensday. I've barely had time to keep up with my usual responsibilities, which leaves no time for blog entries. But here's one thing - a picture from Shiftways. (It'll probably show up on shiftways.com eventually)

Photographed live on Tim's big honkin' battle mat. This very set (along with 9 others) will be on sale at Gen Con. I can't, however, promise to sell you this specific one. They all look pretty much alike.

Shiftways Launches

David Goodner — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:32:28 GMT

It's been quiet around here lately, but not from lack of me working. It's just that stamping hundreds of wooden blocks doesn't make for good web content. I believe I've mentioned that I developed a board game here. (If not, I'm mentioning it now.)

Shiftways is an innovative stone-capturing game that's been lurking in the back of my mind since the early 1990s. Tim Rayburn (the same guy who keeps my blog running) liked it so much he convinced me we should sell it. (He also did a huge ammount of work helping me take it from basic concept to finished game.)

We're launching (completely unofficially) at GenCon 2007. Tim and Kate Rayburn, myself, and our friend Chris Jackson will be at the con with copies to demo for anyone who's interested, and with copies to sell.

Our product website, http://shiftways.com/, is live, if not very pretty. In the next few days, we'll try to pretify it with some photos, rules to the game, and background. A checkout system should also be forthcoming. (But don't expect your orders to be delivered until after GenCon. We're taking our whole stock with us. :) )

I'll try to get something else up here for your entertainment, but it may be a couple weeks.

And we're back

David Goodner — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 03:49:03 GMT

An error with the blog yesterday seems to have been resolved - probably through the tireless efforts of Tim Rayburn. Or maybe it was just one of those things.

Either way, I don't know if my hordes of subscribers (okay 6) got their RSS feeds, so I figured I'd throw out an announcement.

New Toys

David Goodner — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 18:33:16 GMT

I have added a new spell, "Bio-protective Aura," to the Cinematic Unisystem Spells section, and a new enchanted item, "The Colt," to the Cinematic Unisystem Enchanted/Superscience items section.

Enjoy.

New Unisystem Qualities

David Goodner — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:35:50 GMT

I have added two new Qualities to the Unisystem Qualities section: "Gift of the Gab" and "Natural Born Killer." (I really gotta stop with the humorous Quality titles)

Both were inspired by Jack of All Trades from One of the Living. As I am now running an All Flesh Must Be Eaten campaign, you can expect to see more of this kind of thing.

New addition to Unisystem Widgets: the Caster Pistol

David Goodner — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:28:15 GMT

If all has gone well, the Cinematic Unisystem Enchanted/Superscience Items section now has a new entry, "The Caster Pistol." Yes, I liked Outlaw Star. Thanks for asking. I don't love you all enough to go catalog all the different shell types, though. If someone else has a catalog of them, I'd be glad to see it, and I'd write them up.

Victory is Mine

David Goodner — Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:43:41 GMT

Victory was actually mine five days ago, at 10:45 PM central time. I finished the first draft of my NaNo. I'd technically "won" two days earlier by breaking 50,000 words, but I didn't consider the job finished until I got to the end of the story.

Now I'm letting it sit for a while before I decide what to do with it. I think it's a decent beginning of a book, but it needs a lot of work.

In the meantime, I'm not sure what I'm doing next. Probably just focusing on the very slowly progressing webcomic I'm working on with Lisa.

I'll try to come up for something to amuse my legions of fans before too long, though.

NaNoWriMo 2006

David Goodner — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 20:52:14 GMT

Hi y'all. Things have been quiet here for a few weeks, and now I'm ready to tell you why. I've been getting ready to write a novel. Every year, on November 1st, thousands of people join in the task of trying to write a short (50,000 word) novel in 30 days. Since the inception of National Novel Writing Month, every year previous to this one, I remembered that fact some time after November 12. But this year someone reminded me ahead of time and I have decided to go for it.

During the past several weeks, I've mulled over ideas and pulled together an outline and some character descriptions. And today, about four hours ago, I started writing. As of right this minute, I have 1230 words or so.

I'm trying to decide if I want to post the novel here, or leave it more private. At the very least, I think I'll get around to writing up some of the characters in Unisystem, just for the amusement value. Since I'm not exactly using the Buffy setting, there will be some compromises, but they might still be useful as NPCs.

But mostly I'll be writing like mad, since I need to write about 1667 words a day, seven days a week, to finish on time.

We will return to our (ir)regularly scheduled gaming content in about a month. :)

New Unisystem Quality

David Goodner — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:43:13 GMT

I have just added "The Hellrider" to my Unisystem Qualities collection, completely suitable for an Angel or Buffy game. Enjoy.

Technical Note, part 2

David Goodner — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 03:01:25 GMT

Tim has now fixed the posting identity issue. Yea Tim!

David G.

Technical Note

David Goodner — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 18:31:25 GMT

Due to some odd glitch in the blog software, posts to this page all say they were posted by Tim Rayburn. That's actually true of the "Play's the Thing" entries. He loaded them up after he set up the blog so there'd be some initial content. But we don't know why the blog still thinks all the posts are from him.

We'll figure it out eventually. Till then, I suppose you'll just have to trust me that it's me and not Tim. Or perhaps you don't really care, so long as the content is good. Or, for that matter, for all any of you know, "Tim Rayburn" is just my alias. (But he's not. Honest.)

Identity on the internet is so ephemeral.

Anyway, despite what the blog settings might say, everything posted after the columns were entered and backdated has been by me, David Goodner, and not by Tim.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled broadcast, already in progress.

And Now, Another Word from Our Sponsors

David Goodner — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 03:22:31 GMT

Technomancer Press Arms RPG Players
August 8, 2006

Technomancer Press, LLC (TCM) is launching a new RPG Theory line-- books about playing beyond just win/lose or min/max. The first book, due November 23rd, is "The Play's the Thing", a collaboration with columnist David Goodner, RPGnet, and TCM. "The Play's the Thing" features 100 pages of advice for players and GMs looking to get into character.

David writes, "The Play's The Thing is about a player's job in an RPG", and provides an interesting way of looking at playing RPGs.
This collection features entries from David's long-running RPGnet column and makes for ideal late summer reading. "We feel that gamers
are also readers" gambles TCM's Sandy Antunes, "and gamers will want books about playing a more enjoyable RPG."

Sneak peek copies will be on sale at GenCon, and the book will be available via retailers and at the PAX convention on November 23.
Information on Technomancer Press, LLC is at www.technomancer-press.com, RPGnet is of course rpg.net, and retailers and distributors can get our books via their Studio2Publishing account. Subsequent RPG theory books are planned for 2006-2007.

And with that, please permit me to do the dance of joy. :)

And Now, a Word from Our Sponsors

David Goodner — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 02:58:12 GMT

It is my great pleasure to announce the imminent publication of The Play's the Thing by Technomancer Press.

With any luck, it will be available for GenCon in a couple weeks. I will now dance with glee.

(Fortunately for you, the site doesn't come with video)

Welcome

David Goodner — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:54:27 GMT

Greetings and salutations. Welcome to the Astounding Mr. Goodner's Amazing Electric Widgets.

Mind you, Mr. Goodner is only particularly astounding to those who are easily astounded, and his Widgets are only amazing to those with a low threshold for amazement. They are, however, electric, since otherwise you couldn't read them with your electrical calculation engine.

We're really just getting started here. Expect a few changes over the next several days. I'll be posting bits of fiction, gaming content, and possibly artwork for you to enjoy. Most of it will be stuff I couln't publish professionally for one reason or another. The most common reason being "I don't own the source IP."

I will, of course, also use this space to advertise any professional work I do or any other projects I work on. Advertising may be gauche, but it puts food on the table, cokes in the fridge, and electrons in the wires: all things I have come to rely upon heavily.