Book Review: The Dragon Codex Series
1 Comment
Posted on September 5th, 2009 by
In the past few years, the folks who make the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game have made a big effort to be more family friendly, trying to expose kids who have a natural love of fantasy and imagination to the rich tapestry of story that makes up the various parts of the Dungeon and Dragons mythos. Not immune to the lure of the very hot realm of preteen fiction, they have put together their own publishing line entitled Mirrorstone books. Two of the main series are the Practical Guide Series and the Dragon Codex Series. The Practical Guides are almost coffee table books for kids with rich, colorful illustrations and entertaining text on the topic of dragons, fairies, monsters and the like. The Dragon Codex series takes a more traditional route and is a series of young adult novels all tied to a particular color of dragon (in the D&D universe basic colored dragons like red or blue tend to be bad while metallic colored dragons like copper or gold tend to be good). All the codex books are fairly good reads, age-appropriate with a couple minor exceptions. They take advantage of the rich history of the D&D Dragonlance universe to provide stories about young teens having adventures in a world with a rich, diverse history. Each book is independent of the others, although if they are read in series there are occasional nods to occurrences to things that happened in previous books. Here are my thoughts on the books in the series so far.
Doldrums – What are you Playing?
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 by
I’ve finished Batman and slated it for another playthrough (a rear thing for me) on Hard, sometime in the future. Beatles Rock Band is due in these parts today or tomorrow, but other than that I’m kind of at a loss game-wise. Wolfenstein lost my interest due to generic gameplay and poor pacing sometime back and I decided that Battlefield 1943 (an awesome download) just wasn’t fun using a console controller. What I really mean to say here is that back in the PC BF1942 I was a deadshot on Wake Island – on the 360 I wonder how the heck people can hit me so consistently. Of course, the coming PC version might just prove I’ve totally lost my touch. A real possibility at 38. So, what to play?
State of the Heart – 2 years Ago
Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by
Two years ago today I felt a little off. I did some gardening, kissed my kids as they went to a sleepover at a friends house and had a nice dinner with my wife. I started feeling a little chest pain – right side, like heart burn or a stomach ailment – but otherwise okay. Linda went to bed, I went to play video games, for the life of me I can’t remember what game it was. After an hour or so I woke Linda up, the pain was worse, but it still felt stomach related so she authorized me a second pill (Prilosec) and went back to sleep. I took a shower to help defer the discomfort and went back downstairs where – unbelievably to me now – I had a cigarette.
Blizzcon ’09 – Gaming with Children style
Posted on September 2nd, 2009 by
Blizzcon, the annual festival of all things Blizzard (World of Warcraft, Diablo, etc…) was recently held in Southern California. Rather than send some boring old grown-up to do the reporting, Gaming With Children went an entirely other direction – we sent a boy (and his mom). Since they’re both avid World of Warcraft players, it seemed a natural fit. Here’s his report!
Hi, I’m Aiden. On Friday, August 21, 2009, I was given the opportunity to go to Blizzcon as a reporter, thanks to the great guys at Gaming With Children. It was amazing! It was so big that the $175 tickets sold out in about a minute. If you weren’t in the queue to buy a ticket in the first thirty-seconds after they were available to the public, you didn’t get a ticket. However, I got to go for free as a Gaming with Children reporter! Blizzcon was held in four halls of the Anaheim Convention Center. Each hall had a different focus: World of Warcraft, Diablo, Starcraft, and the Performance hall.
A PAX Approaches
Posted on September 1st, 2009 by
Well this will be my last blog until after I get back from PAX. When I’ve gone to video game conventions in the past, I usually would bring my dad with me because he could help me get around since I’m blind in my left eye, and plus I just like doing things with my family. This year I’m doing something a little different. I’m bringing little brother Jeff and my mom along. I’m glad that I can afford to take them on a vacation at this point in my life. I’ve never been able to do that before, and I might not have that chance again.
GenCon 2009 – Wrap-up Report
Posted on August 26th, 2009 by
While I first think of boardgames and RPGs when I think of GenCon, it is actually so much more. Here are a few of the nifty, cool, or downright odd things I came across as I went about my business. Oh, and since we are a video-game centric site after all, I’ve also included a few comments about the video games being shown off in the main dealer hall.
Saints Row
Posted on August 25th, 2009 by
How about that Saints Row? That good for the shorties, yo?
GenCon 2009 Report – Gamer Boardgames
Posted on August 24th, 2009 by
What is a gamer boardgame? My previous GenCon report covered family boardgames, games that are great to play with younger kids, or informally with friends who drop by for dinner. Gamer games are slightly more complex and tend to last a bit longer (an hour or two).
GenCon 2009 – A Photo Essay
Posted on August 22nd, 2009 by
Two reports down, two to go. No additional posts today, but feel free to head on over to Boardgame News to check out my photo essay on the convention. I’ll be back next week to finish up with coverage of the more advanced boardgames and then wind up with an overview of collectible gaming, video games, and the just plain strange at this year’s GenCon.
GenCon 2009 Report – Family Gaming
Posted on August 21st, 2009 by
In the past few years, GenCon has made a concerted effort to appeal to a broader audience than the stereotypical gamer geek. They have a areas set aside for kids to play boardgames, trips to the local museums and movie showings for gamer spouses, there’s even a giant highway billboard I see every day on the way to and from the convention that advertises GenCon as a family vacation destination. For the most part, I think they are succeeding. Even in the past five years that I have attended, I have noticed a significant shift in both the family-friendly offerings and a much larger family contingent of attendees. As I’m a big boardgaming fan, I managed to find more information on boardgames than can fit in a single article. So today I’ll focus on games and companies that are family-friendly. Next time we’ll cover boardgames that are cut out more suitable for enthusiastic gamers.
