PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. Some more thoughts about Dr. Who Season 2 and an archive review of "Beyond The Cosmos" by Dr. Hugh Ross!

I am the greatest virtual tanker alive. Okay, perhaps I just think I should be the greatest virtual tanker alive. I mean, I have plenty of experience showing me that I am not even close to the greatest, so it must be a distorted view of my own talents and value that allows me to say that first statement.  I know this, but…I don’t always feel this. Let me back up a bit. I play World of Tanks. A lot. Recently WoT added what they call “personal missions” where you can earn award tanks for achieving particular things in your matches. Suddenly, my goal was to earn those tanks. As the greatest virtual tanker alive, even if only in my mind, no problem, right? Grinding, grinding, grinding, buying tanks, selling tanks, re-equipping tanks, I changed my habits to match my new goal. The only problem was: I wasn’t getting it. I would have outrageously good (for me) battles, and still miss my mission by a single shot, a missed opportunity, or just having a horrible, terrible, brain-...

Cosmic Patrol from Catalyst Game Labs appealed to me the instant I saw the book. Such classic iconography with the rocket ship surrounded by orbiting bodies. A name so evocative of the pulp stories and radio serials that I love. Elegant graphic design in an attractive digest-sized hardcover. Wait. Digest size? I suppose that’s when I knew that something was about to go terribly wrong. After all, RPG books are supposed to be the full size of a 8.5x11 sheet of paper. It’s only reluctantly that Savage Worlds and Fate won me over to the 6x9 novel-sized format. Certainly Palladium’s decision to publish the new edition of Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles in manga-sized trade made the book completely undesirable from my point of view. I was rushed, so I passed by the core book and grabbed the Quick-Start rules instead. Let’s take a look.   Create Your Character: (D10)   The hardcover books are certainly very attractive leatherette numbers with nice quality paper stock inside...

PLEASE NOTE: The mp3 file links for this post are outdated. To listen to this episode please visit  The SBU Podcast Archives.  Sorry for the inconvenience. Some thoughts about Dr. Who Season 2 and a retro-review of the Shadow Hearts games for PS2!

"Isaac Asimov on Throne" by Rowena Morrill Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is most well known as the winner of the Hugo Award for “Best All-Time Series” in 1966, the only series to date to which the award has been given. Asimov himself assumed the award had been created to honor J.R.R. Tolkien and was surprised to receive it. The original short stories were published between 1942 and 1950 in the pages of Astounding Magazine. These were later collected, and additional material added to form the novels known as the Foundation Trilogy. The impact of the Foundation stories has been felt in every form of series fiction written since its time, and most significantly in the fiction written for tabletop and electronic gaming. Until Foundation , attempts to build a cohesive mythology around an entirely fictional setting had been mostly accidental and abortive. It’s possible that Asimov’s work was taken more seriously than E.E. Smith’s Lensman series (with which it shares ma...

The nefarious Doctor Diablo concocts a scheme to ruin humanity. Story: "Doctor Diablo" by Ethan Russell Erway Genre: Science Fiction Rating:  G    Credits: "My Kingdom For A Horse" by Ethan Russell Erway (writing as Michael Belmont) www.ethanrussellerway.com Facebook Works by Ethan Russell Erway: The Bleeding Star Chronicles The Adventures Of Michael Belmont Blowing Off Steam Michael Belmont And The Curse Of The Thunderbird (Coming Soon!)  Originally Appearing on The Untold Podcast