Uppercut, Uppercut, Jab, Jab, Jab.

Don't ask me why, I never could explain it. Not even years ago when my older kids were tiny and my wife would give me that look. You may know the one, the one most wives give you that is at once a mix of curiosity at just what degree of insanity your suffering from coupled with an oh so subtle suggestion to not repeat whatever you just did in public anytime soon. Yeah, that look.

I used to get the look for doing, well, any number of things. Over the years it has become a talent I suppose, something I excel at with the expertise of a master. But one of them in particular was when I'd play with the kids like they were tiny little boxers, holding them in my lap and miming their little arms. In a playful little tempo I'd recite that simple little pattern, sometimes I'd even add a little 'one-two-one-two.' It's never been anything I can trace back to any reason, just a little thing I did, and still do. Most of my kids never even seem to remember it.

And then last night happened.

To my youngest son's delight my sister sent home a copy of the movie Real Steel for him to get to watch since she had noticed he adored the commercials for it. Sure enough it was all he talked about until we put it in last night, and still has him fixated. As far as movies go I have to admit it was a awesome film. I lost count the number of times all 4 of my children were leaping up from their seats to shadow box with the film or exclaim their excitement.

Even my daughters were not immune to the movie's appeal. Knowing full well that I would certainly be greeted with 'the look' I have grown accustomed to, I brought to my wife's attention our 3 year old daughter's proclamation that she was a 'robot princess' as she proudly displayed her boxing prowess with a 'uppercut, uppercut, jab, jab, jab.'

If you haven't yet seen the film, I implore you to as soon as you can. There is so much more depth to it than you would expect. The cliche tag on the case claimed that it was "like rocky but with robots." And as silly as some people will undoubtedly find that, it is also just as inspiring and endearing. You can't help but feel and root for the little underdog robot Atom, but more so for stories father and son team.

As many writers have said before; real steel isn't in strength or power, but in the courage and will of the heart to never give up. 

Entering E-Reader Land.

You may be familiar with the recent explosion of interest in e-readers and tablets, especially after the holiday shopping season. In fact, according to recent reports as many as one in four Americans own an e-reader/tablet. It has become a rapidly growing market that is being shaped by how we consume media. And as with any new tech trend a good deal of confusion is abounding by people approaching it. With that in mind I thought I might bring up a few points for you to consider if your thinking of getting yourself an e-reader/tablet.

E-Ink vs. LCD - Are you a big reader? Do you spend a lot of your time reading, going through multiple books a week, needing only crisp text and long battery life to satisfy you? If that is the case there are a number of great low-cost options out there that make use of the revolutionary electronic ink display. They're known for minimizing eye strain and being comfortable to read even in direct sunlight. However unlike their alternative they are limited by needing external light sources if your reading in low light or at night.

If your a reader but find yourself desiring a different experience, the option of LCD might be for you. Devices with an LCD display are quite capable of providing you with colorful media like magazines in addition to a bit more flexibility. While many E-Ink based devices are capable of accessing the web and other functions it is here where they are limited. In contrast though, LCD's tend to give you the ability to view web sites in color not to mention other forms of media. 

The simple answer here is that if your looking for a pure reading experience go with an E-Ink device. If your looking for more flexibility and don't mind the shorter battery life then LCD may be for you.

Kindle vs. Nook - One of the biggest questions most consumers have been asking is which of the two biggest names out there is right for them. It isn't any thing to answer to be fair, but it is one you really should spend time considering. Many experts have been relegating simply to which ecosystem your more comfortable with; Barnes & Noble or Amazon. And while that is a factor I must say my own view is a little different.

For me the choice boils down to a few key issues:
1.) Do you value hardware or software? This is a primary concern if your looking at the newer LCD based devices like the Kindle Fire, Nook Color or Nook Tablet. While their specs are similar you should take note that the Nook takes the edge when it comes to hardware. Both Nook's are equipped with external micro sd card slots allowing you to not only expand their storage but also giving you the option to run alternate operating systems.

The Kindle though takes the lead when it comes to Software. By that, I mean that the Kindle has at it's disposal a somewhat larger selection of applications along with the impressive wealth of media Amazon is known for. Currently Nook users can only use third party distributors for streaming movies and video while Amazon has it's own library of streamable content as well as partnerships with other distributors.

2.) Specialization or Adaptability. While both brands have made devices that specialize in media consumption I find that there seems to be a difference between the two. For example the Fire seems to me to excel at multimedia like video, where it clearly seems to specialize itself a bit more than the Nook's. But the flip side is that it doesn't lend itself to being adaptable to the user's needs as well. More specifically, the Nooks instead feel designed to take advantage of flexibility. Don't like the stock version of Android? No problem, pop in a sd card with another version and boom - your booting into whatever flavor that suits your taste. Your device short on storage space or acting like it's got an issue, again you have options via your built in card slot. Even without the card slot you can change something as simple(yet user satisfying) as your back ground, something the Fire can't claim without alterations.

These may be some vague generalizations but I feel they're still valid things to consider. And I can honestly say that I personally prefer the Nook devices, but for me their hardware appeal and customization is a major bonus. I have seen a Fire first hand and can't fault the design, it's a nice little device in it's own right.

Android Adventures.

Fascination has seized upon me. Which, might come as no surprise to many who know me well. The cause, you may ask, is such a simple one that it might even give you pause for a laugh(it's okay if you do, go ahead). My father-in-law came down for a visit this last weekend and he brought with him his newest tech-toy: an amazon kindle fire. And while I only allowed myself to explore it for about five minutes or so to minimize it's absence from his hand it did ignite my curiosity.

I've heard about e-readers and tablets for a long time, even glanced at some of the info about them online in passing. What I hadn't done, until now, was actively explore this particular technology trend. I found myself instantly puzzling over the devices' architecture - what hardware did it make use of, what operating system even? Even the mystery of it's accepted programming languages toyed at the back of my mind.

So, like I have said before: if there is something you want to know - look it up. And you know what? I did just that. In fact, over the last few days I have found myself digesting just about everything I can come across on the subject. Android continues to be a fascinating and strange beast that I can't help but want to understand more as well as the fact it pushes me to admit there is so much more I have to learn.

The appeal of a portable means of reading as well as access to other content has always been a selling point for me. I mean, I own a netbook and have loved the little thing ever since I made the purchase. But the potential of some of these newer devices for tinkering opens a whole new array of options that are quite tantalizing. Plus, I now find myself motivated to expand my programming repertoire from my visual basic.net comfort zone into more established languages like C and Java.

Will I take the plunge? Let's just say not only am I getting well versed at the various leading models available, their hardware configurations but also in their ability to lend themselves towards user customization. That and I've already secured my lovely wife's approval. [If married guys, take my advice and always seek your significant others' counsel first, especially if your dealing with limited resources. It's always a wise move.]

Give me time, and if there is any interest I'll see if I can post some information to help clear the muddy waters out there for anyone else thinking of looking into this fascinating topic.

Hack The Planet.

Something monumental(in my meager opinion) has taken place today. And weather or not it will have lasting effect or how it will be remembered will remain to be seen for some time. However it reminds me of a movie from our not so distant past: Hackers. In a somewhat analogous way it focuses on the digital exploits of intelligent individuals banding together to tackle a greater issue using something as simple as technological familiarity itself. Now they also wielded the formidable battle-cry: "Hack The Planet!"

In a similar vein it seems that those who sought to usurp the primal forces of the internet via legal enslavement that seem to cry foul at another group of capable individuals banding together. The venerable Mitch Canter actually puts it a lot more succinctly than I  in his most recent blog post. It was actually his post that reminded me of those immortal words: "Hack The Planet."

It seems that we have perhaps begun to do just that. But we'll have to stay on our toes and keep an eye on things because there are still those out there determined to see laws like SOPA, PIPA and OPEN succeed. One way or another. We have fought for freedom, our nation has bled for others' freedoms as well as our own. Our voices have let them know we will not stay quiet, that we will fight, as our fore fathers before us.

So if you haven't already, let your elected officials know where you stand. Don't ignore these laws or others like them, and don't expect them to fix themselves. We have to stand up and speak. In short we have to "Hack The Planet."

Oh, and forgive the puns, and well, this last one: Keep an eye out for those Cereal Killers; they tend to leave milky outlines of their victims.

The Terrible Tower.

I wrote this little adventure as a follow up to two of my kids initial foray into playing the Pathfinder Rpg. While it uses my a fore-mentioned guidelines, it does expand on things a bit. Feel free to use it yourself if you like, just know that it is currently written with children aged approximately 4-6 in mind playing 1st level characters.

The Synopsis: A pretty elven princess has been kidnapped and taken away to a tower. When a group of goblins and hobgoblins demand gold for her release, her family must beg for some brave heroes to save her. Before it's too late!

Rewards: The elf's can't afford to pay the heroes, but they will offer them each a magical elven cloak to protect them from bad magic. (Cloak of resistance +1)

Monsters: 2 sets of 3 Goblins; 6 hp, 16 ac, Short Sword +2(1d4), or Short Bow +4(1d4) [400xp each]
3 sets of 2 Hobgoblins; 17 hp, 16 ac, Long Sword +4(1d8+2), or Long Bow +3(1d8) [400xp each]
1 Sorcerer; 18 hp, 15 ac, Claws +2(1d4+1) Spells - Magic Missile (1d4+1), Hold Portal, Sleep (Dc 12) [600xp] *Only 5 total spells can be cast by the sorcerer, in any combination. However, his first action should be to cast hold portal on the door to lock the would be saviors in. As a last ditch effort he may resort to casting sleep on any hero he finds a pressing threat before attempting to flee.

The Tower's layout: A simple structure, the tower itself is made up of a central room with a pair of hobgoblins guarding outside. Once inside 3 goblins await along with 3 doors. One door leads to 2 more hobgoblins preparing for bed, another 3 more goblins eating, and the last 3 goblins guarding a staircase upwards. Feel free to place each room in any order you like, their primary purpose is to give the players a chance to explore the tower in a fundamental level without being overly complicated. However it is once they rise the stairs they will find the princess along with the sorcerer as he greedily awaits his gold.

I hope you enjoy the adventure of playing with kids, because around every corner is another surprise,

The Kiddie Conundrum.

Alright, so I ran a ultra-light version of Pathfinder last night for my kids, and they fell in love with it. Looking over my notes I've been digesting the events and contemplating what all worked in hopes it'll help me with all the games to come. Other parents out there may have already participated in similar activities with their kids or be considering it, so I thought I'd post my thoughts.  Either way it might help me gather feedback or perhaps even ease the workload of others. Which is always a noble endeavor amongst us DM's, right?

First off, let's just start with the most obvious edict of all; Keep It Simple. A child's attention span as well as their ability to juggle complex concept can vary so wildly between kids that I found it best to forgo a lot of elements of the game. Basically I boiled it down the core essential parts needed for the simplest format I could. Namely, I stuck to simple combat mechanics like armor class, hit points, attack modifier and damage. In this regard we didn't factor in alot of details like range, movement, vision or even critical hits. Upon each child's turn I merely allowed to choose if they wanted to attack and if so how. They could run up and attack the monsters, shoot at them, etc. And don't even bother with initiative. Base your turn sequence on age, let the youngest go first and then go up from there. This way the younger kids will get the thrill of going first and the oldest(most likely you/monsters) will get to go last giving your young heroes the chance to be, well, heroic.

Which leads me to my second issue; Remember this is an introduction, and these are just kids. As I already mentioned we didn't get into alot of traditional aspects of the game. But this was just for the kids to try out and see if they would even like it. With that in mind I generated the characters for them, they were as generic as I could be and as boiled down as you can get. What is simpler than a brutish fighter with a greatsword or a nimble ranger complete with bow and short sword? The fighter allowed my son the ability to dive right into combat and feel like a heroic champion. In contrast the ranger gave my daughter the ability to choose weather or not she wanted to blast out arrows or go toe to toe.

Now this approach also disregarded alot of things some may question; like class features, skills and yes even feats. I didn't feel like the kids needed to worry with anything of the like, at least not yet anyway.  The fighter didn't have any special feats to draw on and we never even got into the ranger tracking or favored enemies. All they had to focus on was thinking about the character they were playing and some basic combat. They got the excitement of rolling the dice and waiting to see the result. It really helped things move quickly and keep their attention. In truth by the end of the adventure I had to wonder if it hadn't worked too well.

The third issue to consider is one you may not even think of; Consider Your Audience. Sure, you probably do just that in any other game but you have to be doubly careful with kids. If your selecting monsters for the adventure, keep in mind their scare factor and how you may describe them. Will they spook the kids? If so, you might want to rethink the choice.  For example; undead and the like might not be the best choice unless the kids are a little older. Also, when you go to describe them make sure you use details they can grasp. Use things like explaining them as angry, or mean so they can easily respond/interpret. On the same note carefully choose your motivation. If the players are kids it is best to give them something they can identify with. Some easy options for any kid are the most obvious: saving or helping the grown ups, especially if they aren't able to is always a good one. Children love to, in my opinion, show that they can do something others can't. It lets them feel good about themselves and establishes some means of identity from other. And if they can save/aid an adult it reinforces that sense of self worth. They depend on us for so much, it is a major thrill when they can feel like we are having to depend on them.

My last real issue is a simple but important one: Guide Them, But Don't Forget To Let Them Guide You.
What I mean by this is, as you play don't hesitate to guide kids as they play. Start off by offering them options like if they want to fight the monsters or run. Give them little cues like reminding them how the monsters ran into that cave, and they still have the medicine your after. The trick, though, is in letting them guide you. Watch them for cues if your description is upsetting them or if they're simply not enjoying things. If they are handling things well and you think they can then by all means feel free to introduce some of the other game elements. This could be as simple as providing them a couple skills or a feat or two. However if you were to decide to incorporate a more complex class like a cleric or wizard I'd recommend keeping them as simple and straight-forward too. Namely let the cleric heal other characters a couple times a day, or a wizard with just a couple of spells at their disposal. You shouldn't even try to bring anything like spell failure or spell preparation into the game for awhile either way. Like I said, let them guide you on how much they can handle and you just help them as they discover how much that is.

I'm fairly sure that if you do that, then everyone will have fun.

Oh, and lest I forget - That is the primary goal here, right? Don't force them to play, and likewise don't feel like you have to run games for your kids just because you enjoy playing yourself. But if they do want to, I'll share with you my most successful strategy: look at everything through their eyes. If you think it'd be funny to them then by all means describe the kobold attacking them when he misses as sticking his 'pointy stick' into the dirt and gesture as if your him and it's stuck.(Grunts and animal sounds can help too). I know we enjoyed it, I only hope if you decide to try it you all will too.  

Mighty Midgets & Monsters.

When everyone in town falls ill and the local merchant's medicine is stolen only some brave kids can save the day.

That was the only plot needed to delight a pair of children and spark their imagination. My middle two children have seen us play D&D and the like before, they've marveled at the dice as if they were precious and magical gems even. But up till now they have never really gotten the chance to take part. As I recently became reminded of how their older brother used to have a similar curiosity and how he came to start playing it really got me thinking. Especially since his earliest teachers marveled at his math skills not to mention his familiarity with problem solving.

Playing something everyone else perceives as complicated and relegated to nerds in a basement actually helped him in ways I had never considered. He quickly grasped adding and subtracting as we handled dice rolls. Honestly, he even shocked his own mother and me with how he could figure some situations out. He even used to out think some adults at the table a few times, much to their dismay. All things considered, he had a blast playing and I enjoyed our little mini-sessions.

Now, let's get something clear right away though; he never played with all the advanced rules. Something that many adults I know have to admit as well! There was no combat maneuvers like trips or bull rush, and we never really forced him to track all his gears weight(at first). Even with lightening the rules load the truth of the matter was he was still playing the actual game.

Fast forward to present day and he sat watching down the table as his siblings started their own journey. Again, I kept it as simple as I could. Here is my notes for the adventure:

For my son(4 yr old), we have the brave and tough little fighter 'Bear-Claw.'
Fighter level 1
Hp - 12 Ac - 17
Weapons - Greatsword (We called it his giant's sword) +3 to hit, 2d6+3 damage, Dagger +3 to hit, 1d4+2 damage.
My daughter(5 yr old), we have the lovely young woodsman's daughter 'Lula-Belle.'
Ranger level 1
Hp - 11 Ac - 18
Weapons - Shortsword +2 to hit, 1d6+1 damage, Long Bow +4 to hit, 1d8 damage.

For monsters we had about 6 naughty little kobolds and a mean white dragon wyrmling. Again, their stats consisted simply of their respective hp, ac, and attacks. The dragon was confined to bites, claws and a 2d4 breath weapon with a short range. Nothing overly complex or too scary, this was to be fun.

To start things off I called the kids to the table and sat down with my notebook, a pencil and my dice bag. I carefully explained, rather told them as simply as I could that we were about to play a little game. I looked to my little boy and told him he would get to be this tough and strong boy named 'Bear-Claw' who had a giant's sword and a knife in his pocket. His sister watched as I told her she was going to be a young lady from the woods who know lots about hunting and animals. Her name was 'Lula-Belle' and she had a short little sword as well as a big bow with a lot of arrows.

For atmosphere I kept my descriptions short and lively, trying to keep their attention and let them really get into things. They listened as I explained how everyone else in town had fallen sick and only they were still well. As I gestured like a wounded man they watched me pretend to be a mugged merchant on the way to deliver medicine. They took the hook right away and declared they would stop those pesky monsters!

Quickly they ran into the direction the merchant pointed and spotted 6 kobolds trying to make off with sacks of medicine towards the mountain. I decided to use age in place of initiative so the youngest could go first to maintain their excitement and too so that the monsters(me) always went last. Bear-Claw charged forward to slam his massive blade upside a kobolds head and knocked it out. Lula-Belle took aim and sent another to the realm of the unconscious(you may notice nothing died, only knocked out - they're kids, I opted to forgo the element of death and physical harm). After the kobold missed, Bear-Claw mopped the third up only to find the other three had ran ahead into a cave with the medicine.

Now, I'll admit I did guide the kids just a bit, even reminded them that caves are dark places. But my son actually(in his own way) knew just what to do and pulled out a torch to light the way. [His actual response was that it was okay he had a magical flash light in his head, so I merely redirected him to look through his backpack and therein he found a 'magical torch' instead.] After the brave little band thoroughly thrashed the other three kobolds they decided to head to the back of the cave to retrieve the medicine.

This was the fun part, I won't lie. Because here was my chance to let them feel triumphant over the kobolds only to find something else lurking in the shadows. A strange sound like the crunching of ice they could hear and the cave felt colder. As they approached they spotted a wyrmling white dragon taking up position by the medicine and growling angry. It was here that my son surprised me, for he wouldn't attack the dragon. Was it the fact it was a small sized baby one that he inherently felt mercy for, I dunno. But his sister saw no such restraint and let an arrow fly. However, it can be said when the dragon strove to unleash it's chilling breath upon her that he saw all hesitation removed.

Between the two of them it only took a handful of rounds to dispatch the beast and reclaim the medicine. To their grinning faces though they found a couple items - the meager horde the young dragon had thus far managed. Upon returning the medicine they were each rewarded with a small sack of gold(about 25g).

The whole of the adventure passed quickly enough, lasting only about 30 to 40 minutes at most. But the result was both of them were excited and begged to play more immediately. Actually, with my son's autism he saw it difficult to control his enthusiasm and launched into a string of stories he started imagining. My wife even remarked when she asked if he had fun how his pupils were literally blown from sheer excitement. I should also note he surprised me further when it came to the dragon when he asked if he had any 'magic sleeping dust."

Already I think I have their interest for sure. Not to mention the knowledge that I need to keep an eye on my son and his creative mind. We will definitely have to do this again. At least as long as the kids enjoy it and want to.