Steve’s Update 12/2/2013

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Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.  Had a rather relaxing one, but sadly didn’t cook as much as I wanted because there was so much food already planned – got to plan ahead earlier.

So let’s get to what’s going on!

  • My next book is getting more editor feedback now – waiting for the main editor to get back to me with the full work-up and then I can dive on in.  So far it’s looking good, though I do have a few formatting and related issues – 100 new pages is a lot.  The cover art also is in progress!
  • As you saw, Seventh Sanctum is now back to the blue a lot of people liked.  I may continue to tweak it in the holidays, but anything major is going to wait.  As for what’s major, I’m going to look at installing a blog, the only reason I’m cautious is making sure it doesn’t interfere with the site proper.
  • Sorry there aren’t any cooking posts lately – been a bit busy as you may guess.  I plan to get back to them – and my backlog of recipes, though many of those are still experimental.
  • If you visit the Informotron you’ll see I’ve got a great new resource from the Convention Career Connection book, a guide to Geeky Professional Associations.  Give it a check!

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.

What Has Marvel Got To Lose?

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[This article was originally published at Comics Bulletin.]

So having seen Thor 2: Return of Loki and some other guy with blond hair, it’s obvious (and as in being discussed all over the internet) that Marvel is going large. Huge. Enormous.

This all sounds like it may lead to a rather “rocky” crossover with a real gem of an idea that could get you stoned if you did it wrong. Wow, that metaphor got out of hand.

So what is Marvel doing having, as it were, thrown down the gauntlet?

Infinity_Gauntlet

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Randomizing and RPGs

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(This was originally posted at Ongoing Worlds.  And yes, it’s a Seventh Sanctum column that’s not an update.  A trend?  We’ll see!)

Look Back In Randomness . . .

In 1999 at a gathering of anime and Mystery Science Theater Fans, I commented how some anime attacks sounded randomly generated by computer.  Suddenly it struck me that it would be easy to write a program to do that, as I’d written code to do superhero names and names in the vein of Elfquest characters.  A few notes later I had enough ideas to try and I made an Anime Power Generator.

Then I began thinking of other options.  And more random generators emerged.  Then I put them on my web site.  Then they took over the website.

Then what is known today as Seventh Sanctum was born.  Eventually it encompassed over 150 generators.  I just kept making these things for 14 years.

So in 2013 I realized that perhaps I had to update the years old design, and go modern.  Fortunately Bootstrap provided me the framework I needed, and I proudly updated it in a mobile, adaptable, and honestly easier to read and simpler design.

This is when Dave contacted me.  He and I knew each other from when I interviewed him at MuseHack.  He noted that I had many random generators for people to use in writing, art, and of course RPGs.  But what is the role of randomizers in RPGs anyway?

I’d never thought of it.  I just sort of assumed it was obvious or instinctive.

Dave had challenged me, in short, to put into words what was rarely expressed.  I was up for the challenge – frankly I wanted to see my own thoughts in more solid form.

So, you run an RPG or play one, or are starting one.  How can randomness help you in something that’s so often the result of planning, phrasing, and writing?  Many, many ways . . .

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