Going through our archives we realised that we had a significant lack of articles about Steampunk awesomeness. In a effort to make up for this travesty we would like to highlight the most excellent webcomic FreakAngels written by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Paul Duffield. Set in England in a post-apocalyptic future, the story follows twelve children (now mostly grown up) as the reasons for the apocalypse and their role in it are revealed.

Continue reading FreakAngels – A Free Online Steampunk Comic

Back in April this year, Wizards of the Coast (WotC) filed three copyright infringement cases against eight individuals for sharing a copy of the Player’s Handbook II on document sharing site Scribd. Yesterday the judge accepted a settlement with the second of the eight defendants. WotC are still seeking a default judgement against a third. The amount settled was $125,000 (in the previous case they had settled for $100,000). The other cases involve individuals in the Philippines and Poland.

Continue reading Wizards of the Coast settle copyright infringement case

The Star Wars Uncut project is perhaps one of the most awesome projects started online. Basically anyone can claim a 14 second portion of the film to remake in their own fashion. So far there have been acted scenes, animated scenes, puppets, drawings, IM’d conversations, etc. So far the film is 56% complete, which has meant that they have finally released a trailer for the project. There are still 183 sections left to be claimed (as of writing that is…) so be quick to claim your scene.

Continue reading Get your friends together – Star Wars Uncut needs your help

I have discovered a quick and easy way to get Facebook Notifications on your iPhone without having to wait for version 3.1 of the Facebook App to deliver the feature natively (which is still might not do either). While this system doesn’t automatically drop you into the Facebook App, it will send you push notifications to your iPhone.

Continue reading Getting Facebook iPhone push notifications without waiting for Facebook App 3.1

Dark Fantasy was a radio program which aired for a short stint from 1941 to 1942. The audio plays were written by Scott Bishop, an author who had penned a number of short stories of weird fiction for various magazines, and was later to go on to the more widely known radio production known as the Sealed Book. My first introduction to this series of shows was while listening to the Cthulhu Podcast, which included the story The Demon Tree, which was based on the old English myth of the Strangling Oak. I listened to this while on my evening constitutional. In the dark, with the trees looming, I found it instantly chilling. Some stories show a Lovecraftian influence, and some of the names of the characters and places show that Bishop must have been influenced by Lovecraft’s writings.

It is, of course, also filled with wonderful 1940’s radio theatre cheese, including warbling organ, sexist stereotypes etc. But that all adds to the flavour.

The whole series can be downloaded both free and legally from the good folks at the Internet Archive.

I was doing my morning reading when I came across this hilarious HL2 fan fiction
(edit) after a little research I found the source! Squirrelking’s Fanfiction

John Freeman who was Gordon Freemans brother was one day in an office typing on a computer. He got an email from his brother that said that aliens and monsters were attacking his place and aksed him for help so he went.
John Freeman got his computer shut down and wet on the platform to go up to the roof of the building where he left his motorcycle and normal people close because he was in his office lab coat. John Freeman got on his motorcycl and said “its time for me to live up to my family name and face full life consequences” so he had to go.
John Freeman ramped off the building and did a backflip and landed. He kept driving down the road and made sure there was no zombies around because he ddint have weapon.
The contrysides were nice and the plants were singing and the birds and the sun was almost down from the top of the sky. the mood was set for John Freemans quest to help his brother where he was. John Freeman looked around the countrysides and said “its a good day to do what has to be done by me and help my brother to defeat the enemys”.
John Freeman was late so he had to drive really fast. A cop car was hiden near by so when John Freeman went by the cops came and wanted to give him a ticket. Here John Freeman saw the first monster because the cop was posessed and had headcrabs.
“I cant give you my lisense officer” John Freeman said
“Why not?” said the headcrab oficer back to John Freeman.
“Because you are headcrab zombie” so John Freeman shot the oficer in the head and drove off thinking “my brother is in trouble there” and went faster.
John Freeman had to go faster like the speed of sound and got there fast because Gordon needed him where he was. John Freeman looked at road signs and saw “Ravenholm” with someons writing under it saying “u shudnt come here” so John Freeman almost turned around but heard screaming like Gordon so he went faster again.
John Freeman drove in and did another flip n jumped off his motorbike and the motor bike took out some headcrab zombies infront of John Freeman. John Freeman smiled and walked fast. John Freeman then looked on the ground and found wepon so he pickd it up and fired fast at zombie goasts in front of a house.
John Freeman said “Zombie goasts leave this place” and the zombie goasts said “but this is our house” and John Freeman felt sorry for them becaus they couldnt live there anymore because they were zombie goasts so he blew up the house and killed the zombie goasts so they were at piece.
Then John Freeman herd another scream from his brother so he kept walking really faster to get where he was. Ravenholdm was nothing like the countrysides there was no birds singing and the pants were dead and teh dirt was messy and bloody from headcrabs.
When John Freeman got to where the screaming was started from he found his brother Gorden Freeman fightin the final bosss and Gordon said “John Freeman! Over here!” so John Freeman went there to where Gordon Freeman was fighting. John Freeman fired his bullet from teh gun really fast and the bullets went and shot the final boss in the eyes and the final boss couldnt see.
Gordon Freeman said “its time to end this ones and for all!” and punched the final boss in the face and the final boss fell. John Freeman said “thanks i could help, bro” and Gordon Freeman said “you should come here earlier next time” and they laughed.
The laughed overed quickly though because John Freeman yelled “LOOK OUT BRO!” and pointed up to the top of the sky. Gordon Freeman looked up and said “NOO! John Freeman run out of here fast as you can!” and John Freeman walked real fast out.
John Freeman loked back and saw Gordon get steppd on by the next boss and he was mad and angry.
“I’ll get you back evil boss!” John Freeman yelled at the top of lungs.
to be continued..?

Original here.

Well, not really. But sort of. Wizards of the Coast have released the rules compendium online for 4th edition. This simple tool allows you to search through any of the rules by key terms and then display the results. Very handy if you are needing to find a rule quickly without bogging the game down.

It would be great if they would also release the Monster Manual and Treasure Tables this way too. It would be very handy for a DM (a role which I am returning too in a couple of weeks).

…then check this out on Slashdot…

Apparently at the Olympic Village in China, the press are being hit hard for their interwebs usage. For one month, its going to cost them 1716.05 USD for a 2M/512 connection…