Matt Forbeck, award-winning game designer, novelist, and GeekDad contributor, has had a busy year. Back in December, he announced he was writing one novel every month in 2012, and he’s successfully Kickstarted two trilogies. Now he’s back with his third …
Continue ReadingI’m a big fan of escapist memoirs. I love reading about what drives us into these realms of illusion and especially with how they help us deal with the real world, as Ethan Gilsdorf’s excellent Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks …
Continue ReadingIncantor, a smartphone-based augmented reality game currently in the works by developer MoveableCode, hopes to offer geeks like me a way to wizard-duel in the real world. With a Bluetooth-enabled wand and a smartphone app, I’ll cast spells, battle my …
Continue ReadingOff Your Rocker is a party game that emulates the Party Quirks game from the legendary improv show Whose Line Is It Anyway? One player takes on the role of “psychiatrist” and the rest of the players, the “patients,” all …
Continue ReadingTracy Hurley and Daniel Solis decided they were tired of the cliches. The cheesecake poses, the ridiculous outfits, and the lack of heroic diversity. So they set to work on commissioning the kind of artwork they’d like to see in …
Continue ReadingDinocalypse Now, is a riot of jetpacks and time travel and psychic dinosaurs. Written by the always-entertaining Chuck Wendig, it’s about a group of heroes called the Century Club, who are on call to prevent the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt. …
Continue ReadingOverview: Lords of Waterdeep is the latest board game from Wizards of the Coast. It comes in the wake of the D&D Adventure System dungeon-crawl series and Conquest of Nerath, a hefty strategy game. But this is a departure for …
Continue ReadingEveryone has a different experience during high school. Some people look back fondly at “the best years of their life” and others do their best to never think about it again. Tracy Barnett, a game designer and teacher, decided that …
Continue ReadingLast December, author (and GeekDad contributor) Matt Forbeck announced he was writing twelve — yes, twelve — novels in 2012. He successfully Kickstarted his first three, a trilogy of books set in the world of his popular Brave New World …
Continue ReadingLooking for that perfect gaming accessory to go with your countless geeky t-shirts? Maybe you’ve made the leap and gotten some game related ink but you don’t have any awesome earrings to match? What you need is some jewelry made …
Continue ReadingOverview: VivaJava is the second title from independent game publisher Dice Hate Me Games, and it’s a big departure from their first release, Carnival. This game puts players into the roles of coffee researchers traveling the world in search of …
Continue ReadingMaybe you’re tired of combat oriented role-playing games or you want something a little less violent that you can share with your kids? Maybe you’ve been hearing a lot about “indie games” and you’re looking for a way to test …
Continue ReadingKids say the darndest things, but usually their words don’t make their parents fatally ill. That’s the premise of Ben Marcus’s new post-apocalyptic novel, The Flame Alphabet. The sound of children’s speech suddenly turns lethal and moms and dads everywhere …
Continue ReadingImage: Steve Bialik Last September we blogged about the awesome Ninja Star: Wars prints by Steve Bialik. These clever Japanese woodblock-inspired posters depicted beloved Star Wars characters as if they were right out of an illustrated samurai epic. Bialik is back …
Continue ReadingOverview: The folks at Stratus Games are no strangers to simple and fun games that get the whole family playing. They’re back again with DiceAFARI, a board game that lets you explore Africa and collect photographs of the exotic …
Continue ReadingEvery winter for the past six years, a local comic book shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, turns into an art gallery for a few weeks. And the pieces showcased within are very special. Not because they are original comic …
Continue ReadingDue to recent issues, some people might be looking for alternatives to the widely used money-transfer service. Here are a few to consider.
Continue ReadingIf you thought writing an entire novel in a single month was crazy, you should check out what author, game designer, and fellow GeekDad contributor Matt Forbeck plans to tackle next year. For his 12 for ’12 project, Forbeck is …
Continue ReadingBy this point, everyone knows all about Movember. Shave your face, grow a mustache, get pledges for Livestrong and the Prostate Cancer Foundation. This is a good thing! But there is a similar tradition, as storied and honorable as Movember, …
Continue ReadingProlific game designer and master of Kickstarter, Daniel Solis, is at it again with his latest project: Writer’s Dice. It’s a simple enough idea: a six-sided die with words imprinted on the sides. Toss the dice and get a word: …
Continue ReadingOverview: You’re a gigantic monster and, like all gigantic monsters, you want to be the one and only King of Tokyo. A fast-paced press-your-luck romp through the mayhem of classic monster movies like Godzilla and King Kong, this is one …
Continue ReadingOverview: It’s a fact: gamers can’t get enough Lovecraft. From simple press-your-luck dice games to themed Munchkin decks, it almost seems like throwing in some tentacles and mentioning the eldritch Necronomicon guarantees a hit. Fantasy Flight Games is no stranger …
Continue ReadingLet me tell you a little bit about my son. He’s obsessed with automobiles. My wife, Natania, wrote about her life with cars back when our kid was three, and his obsession with things that go vroom hasn’t abated a bit …
Continue ReadingYou and your Facebook buddies can now venture into dank dungeons and frightful forests, seeking out treasure, glory, experience points. The typical RPG haul.
Continue ReadingHave you entered to win a copy of Stratus Games’ Launch Pad yet? Well, get on it, because there’s not much time left! A few weeks ago, we reviewed Stratus Games’ Launch Pad, a cutthroat game about building rockets, launching …
Continue ReadingOn Friday, Len Peralta announced the second season of his highly popular Geek A Week trading card project. During a panel at Dragon Con, he unveiled the video trailer and a Kickstarter campaign to help fund everything. To fund Geek …
Continue ReadingBack in January, we mentioned game designer extraordinaire Daniel Solis’s Thousand-Year Game Design Challenge. The contest is all about creating a game that will still be played in the year 3011. No mean feat. After all, a thousand years is …
Continue ReadingOverview: Carnival is a set collection card game from Dice Hate Me Games. You’re the manager of (what else?) a carnival and you’re putting together your rides. You need to collect all of the various parts, then assemble everything on …
Continue ReadingA couple weeks ago, we reviewed Stratus Games’ Launch Pad, a cutthroat game about building rockets, launching them into space, and sabotaging your opponents’ efforts to do the same. I had a lot of fun with it and recommended it …
Continue ReadingFor the past two weeks, we’ve serialized author Jonathan Wood’s short, “The Nyarlathotep Event” here at GeekDad, and we’re finally at the last installment. This story is set in the same world as Wood’s debut novel, No Hero, the Lovecraftian urban …
Continue Reading