UPDATES TO KISMET'S DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, '07 - '0807/24/08I updated my D&D music suggestions, since I forgot a few items and have discovered a few more. I just got an invite to join a webring for 4th edition D&D sites, so I put up an announcement to let everyone know that I have no plans to update for the new edition. I have not played 4e yet, though I believe I will get the chance before the year is out. I haven't really been very interested in what I've seen of it so far and it's currently my intention to stick with our ongoing blend of 3x. I know that there are things on this site that everyone can use, like the collection of character names. Other things can provide food for thought. But I must admit that 4e aficionados won't really find much to whet their appetites here. 10/19/07I am still slowly reworking my women in gaming section; don't think I've forgotten it! In the meantime, I have a new and pressing musical recommendation. And I want to thank J_Antonio for writing me with some musical and name suggestions! 09/28/07After seeing so many threads devoted to gaming music over the years, I've decided to make some recommendations over in the DM's Notes section. While players also enjoy gaming music, it seems to me that Dungeon Masters are often the ones in charge of it. I have about 30 suggested albums so far, the lion's share of which I have been using in my games for some time. 09/13/07It's my grandmother's 80th birthday today so I figure, why not commemorate in my own geeky way? I've been working on this update forever and enough is enough - it's time to roll it all out and see how it flies. I rewrote my examination of Leadership (in the DMs Notes section) for what was probably the third time yesterday. I have fiddled and fiddled and fiddled with a lot here. Most of the site is done, though I'm sure there are a few problems lying in wait. My Women in Gaming section hasn't yet been completed because I am in the process of rewriting it. I have other plans for this site but they'll be gradually implemented. 09/04/07It's been several months now and I am almost done with the remodeling of this site. I keep getting distracted by things like work, home, and game demands, as well as the desire to rewrite pages. If I had just cut and pasted the old material entirely, I would have been done some time ago. But I've been able to rewrite things like my review of the Stronghold Builder's Guide, and add things like my article on the Leadership feat. The writing isn't necessarily a swift process, either; I try to be more careful about what I say and I how say it than I've been in the past. I am now almost entirely done and I find that I want to rewrite most if not all of my women in gaming pages, which I know will take more time. Perhaps I can bring myself to copy and paste for now and rewrite them later. Perhaps... 04/16/07Clandestinely I am retrofitting this site for a new graphics set; no one knows it yet because I'm not going to upload a thing until all of the pages are done. I got held up in my almost mechanical progress by my desire to do a new review for the Book of Erotic Fantasy, which is now complete. Alas, I have to attend to some pieces of work that need to be done but once that's over, I'll probably try to convert more pages. Since I have no idea when this conversion will be over, I thought I'd record the new review here. 02/08/07Sometimes unexpected criticism is a good thing. A while back, I stumbled across another site with an interesting thread on the controversy about roleplaying games. The original poster asked for sites about the controversy that had links, footnotes, and a fairly professional methodology. Someone linked to my discussion of the issue here, saying that while my writing was mediocre, I had a lot of links. I was admittedly angry at first since my site is obviously not footnoted or up to collegiate standards, nor is it intended to be. I do enough college-level writing at school; that's not what I've wanted for my sites. But when I thought about it further, I realized that they didn't know that; they'd only found my site through a search, and they only had one goal in mind. And it wasn't a bad goal. I hadn't touched the controversy page in ages so I actually sat down and read it, and as usual, recoiled from my previous writing. I wanted to do better and I wanted to look at the issue much more closely, so I began to dig into news archives and other web sites. I also started to rewrite everything. I still had no intention of college-level standards but I did a much more thorough job than before. I also expanded my section of links and added a selection of newspaper references. Since I've been incredibly busy with school, work, and gaming, I have only been able to work on this project in bits and pieces. I admit that there were times I just went over articles with abject fascination. Sure, I lived through the 80s, but I was young and not yet a gamer. I didn't miss the moral panic of those times - not by a long shot - but to see the past laid out is a breathtaking thing to someone like me. But, despite all delays, I have uploaded the new controversy section today. It is not yet completed and it does not cover every nuance, but it's not a bad start.
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