Having helped the “Al Capone” ghost to his final rest, our heroes turn our attention to the wandering ghost on the 8th floor and Peg Leg Johnny. True love! Confused hotel employees! Tables! All this and more in this exciting episode!
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Chuck lives! Our heroes have survived their battle and put down the evil Nazi ghosts, and now they’re on to tackling the other, considerably less threatening ghosts of the Legislative Plaza Hotel. Excitement! Adventure! Elevators! All this and more in this exciting episode!
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In our last episode, the team headed over to the Legislative Plaza Hotel, did some research at the library, visited an old, dying detective and are on the verge of maybe getting their defender killed by ghosts. We ended the last episode with Chuck making his saving throw to see if plummets 120 feet to his death. Let’s hope he rolls well!
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We’ve got new cover art for Season 2, “2 Guys, a Girl, and a Goblin: The Depth of Night”! Check it out, and let us know what you think:
Quick Warning: The intro to this one is extra long, because I took a few minutes to talk about “Gamergate” and my thoughts on the dickheads that are promulgating it. I also talk quickly about a book, Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of Gaming by the Women Who Love It, which happens to coincidentally deal with the issues women often face when getting involved with games and gaming. You can read my review of it here. If you want to skip it all, you can head to about the 7:36 mark.
In the last episode, we met our new characters, and they set off their first adventure to cleanse the Legislative Plaza Hotel of its restless spirits. We pick up with our heroes headed to the home of one Abraham Alinsky, the lead detective on a case involving the hotel. After talking to Alinsky, we head back to the hotel, where the brave adventurers choose, perhaps unwisely, to make an end run around everything else and head for the biggest baddy. We’ll see how that all works out.
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It’s not usually in the purview of what we do here to review books, but when the good folks at Mad Norwegian Press sent me a galley copy of their new book, Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of Gaming by the Women Who Love It, it seemed like a good opportunity to do just that. Chicks Dig Gaming, part of the Mad Norwegian Press’ Chicks Dig series (including Chicks Dig Comics and Chicks Dig Time Lords), is an anthology of essays by women who game and interviews with women who are involved in the gaming industry. Editors Jennifer Brozek, Robert Smith, and Lars Pearson have assembled a collection of essays and interviews which revolve around the central theme of what it’s like to be a woman working on games and growing up as a gamer, a hobby and an industry still largely dominated by men.
The greatest strength of Chicks Dig Gaming lies in the personal stories shared in the essays, stories of growing up both a girl and a gamer, a position that made many of these women outsiders in their own passion. For anyone paying even a shred of attention, some of the stories shouldn’t come at as a great shock: stories of exclusion, ridicule, and harassment are obviously going to be part of any discussion of women in gaming. What was nice to see, though, was the inclusion of stories of success in the industry, valuable proof that while there’s a long way to go, it is possible for progress to be made. I especially enjoyed reading the interview with Lisa Stevens, Editor and CEO of Paizo Publishing, makers of the Patfinder RPG, about her time with Wizards of the Coast during the early development of Magic the Gathering.
If Chicks Dig Gaming has a weakness, it’s that the message likely won’t make it to the people who need it the most. A person who might be likely to read a book called Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of Gaming by the Women Who Love It is probably also the type of person who is already aware that we still have a long way to go as a society when it comes to how we treat women. As the horrendous misogyny and vitriol leveled against women by the “Gamergate” / Men’s Rights Activism assholes has shown, we could stand to have a little more understanding when it comes to women in games.
Rating: Nothing out of Nothing. I don’t believe in numbers in reviews. I enjoyed the book, you should read it.
Chicks Dig Gaming: A Celebration of Gaming by the Women Who Love it at Mad Norwegian Press
From Mad Norwegian Press:
In Chicks Dig Gaming, editors Jennifer Brozek (Apocalypse Ink Productions), Robert Smith? (Who is the Doctor?) and Lars Pearson(editor-in-chief, the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig series) bring together essays by nearly three dozen female writers to celebrate the gaming medium and its creators, and to examine the characters and series that they love.
Catherynne M. Valente (The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland…,Indistinguishable from Magic) examines Super Mario Bros. through the lens of Samsara, the Wheel of Birth and Rebirth; Seanan McGuire (the October Daye series) details how gaming taught her math; G. Willow Wilson (Alif the Unseen) revels in World of Warcraft; and Rosemary Jones (Forgotten Realms) celebrates world traveler Nellie Bly and the board game she inspired.
Other contributors include Emily Care Boss (Gaming as Women), Jen J. Dixon (The Walking Eye), Racheline Maltese (The Book of Harry Potter Triffles…), Mary Anne Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion), L.M. Myles (Chicks Unravel Time), Jody Lynn Nye (the MythAdventures series), and E. Lily Yu(“The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”). Also featured: exclusive interviews with Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens and Dragonlance author Margaret Weis.
2 Guys, a Girl, and a Gobin is back! Episode 1 introduces our new characters, our new setting, and a whole new chance for us all to act stupid! We pick up with the adventures of Chuck Law, Ivana Diq-Tiqle, Toots, and Splyg as they take their first steps as a newly minted team for CPC, Chicago Paranormal Control. Roll for Initiative!
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Along with dumb audio stuff, we’re starting to work on dumb video stuff, too. Our first full video, based on Sammy’s idea and under her direction, is “Careless Raptors”, in which we look at the love between man and man, and man and dinosaur. Enjoy:
In this episode, we take a look forward at our new characters and setting. This upcoming season will be set in an alternate universe version of Chicago, IL, where monsters, magic, and the supernatural are real. Season 2 of Two Guys, a Girl, and a Goblin stars:
Aaron Buell as Toots, P.I., Gnome Wizard
Eric Helmken as Chuck Law, Human Fighter / Cleric
Sammy Kampersal as Ivana Diq-Tiqle, Human Rogue / Binder
Jim Kliss as The Dungeon Master and Splyg, Goblin Artificer
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