Solo Delving - The City of Terrors - 2nd Delve

I sat in my hotel room tonight with the sad short delving life of Halk the Pretty eating at my soul. I couldn't let it rest. I rolled up a new character: Miss Greta the Ugly.

Greta was betrothed to Halk the Pretty. She knew that of all the trolls he could have had, she was the last he would want. When he ran off for the City of Gull several months ago, he claimed he was going to win his fortune then return. Greta didn't believe him. For months now she as sat in her cave stewing. She just knows that good for nothing pretty boy Halk is probably looking for a new trolless to share a cave with. So she has decided to go to Gull in search of him. If she finds him, oh is he in trouble. In fact. He is lucky that he is dead!

I rolled Greta up with the same method I used for Halk, 4d6 and drop the lowest die; however, I arraigned. I also stole a house rule from Cartomancer. I determined starting gold by rolling 3d6 and multiplying by my highest stat. The short life of Halk indicated to me that a starting character would need a few advantages. Is this cheating? I don't know. I don't care.

Miss Greta the Ugly
Kindred: Troll
Type: Warrior

ST: 42
INT: 14
LK: 15
CON: 48
DEX: 14
CHR: 8
SPD: 10

ADDS: Melee +35/Missile +37

Armor: Complete Mail (11 Hits doubled to 22)

Weapons: Doublebitted Ax (6d + 3 Adds), Common Spear (3d + 1 Add 40 yard range)

Trappings: Warm dry clothing and pack, 1 days rations

Gold: 3 gp

The wealth advantage was huge. I was able to buy some good armor for Greta and she has a massive damage wielding weapon. It was nice that I was able to buy her some sort of a missile weapon as well.

SPOILER ALERT, THE REST OF THIS POST GIVES AWAY DETAILS FROM THE SOLO ADVENTURE. YOU SHOULD NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU WISH TO PLAY IT YOURSELF.

Text in [brackets] indicates directions and choices made in the solo adventure The City of Terrors.

Text in italics indicates crunchy rules stuff.

[115] Greta arrived in the City of Gull by the same method as Halk. Standing outside her hotel Greta tried to determine which way that cheating Halk would have gone. Asking about, she was told the Black Dragon Tavern was nearby. If she knew that scoundrel Halk, he was most likely looking for drink. She went there.

[109] At the Black Dragon, she saw it was the type of establishment that one could buy anything for the right price. She was glad that she only loaned Halk a pittance of gold; however, after buying armor, weapons and trappings for herself, she only had three lonely gold coins in her purse. A gentleman to her left offered to arm wrestle her for a wager.

[73] The gentleman offered to make it more interesting, or she could just make a wager. Greta was supremely confident in her arm wrestling capabilities and told him "Three gold is interesting enough.

[15] The man's name was d'lcsta. He was a formidable opponent.

Each opponent was to roll 2 dice and add in adds. Damage was subtracted from constitution, but the first one reduced to half constitution lost. Greta's half con was 24, d'lcsta's was 20. He had 31 adds, I had 35. No damage was soaked by armor. The combat lasted nine rounds and went back and forth.

d'lcsta was a worthy opponent! However, in the end, Greta won and collected her 3 gold, doubling her wealth.

[109] Greta decided it was time for a drink.

[22] At the bar were two orcs who had obviously had a few. They remarked upon Greta's heritage saying that she could no doubt trace her ancestors back to the four legged variety. Being ugly is old news to Greta. She'd heard much worse from the other trolls while growing up. She decided to ignore them.

[60] That was a bad choice. Greta didn't notice that they had drugged her drink and now she had to fight them!

Greta's constitution was reduced to half for the combat. The orcs had a combined MR of 80, giving them 9 dice and 40 adds to her 6 dice and 38 adds (she was attacking with her doublebitted ax). The combat lasted for 20 rounds. After 8 rounds, it was pretty obvious that they were too evenly matched. They were winning every round, but Greta's armor allowed her to soak 22 hits per round. They would have to roll exceptionally high to do any damage to her. I decided to use "Spite" damage. Each 6 rolled would do 1 point of damage regardless of armor. After 12 more rounds, Greta received 9 points of spite damage total, and eventually she defeated the orcs. On round 19, she did enough damage to reduce their MR to 29 (killing one orc). The next round, she easily defeated the remaining orc.

[6] The orcs put up a good long fight, but in the end, Greta was victorious. Searching the orcs she found a pouch of Wombat Venom.

[115] Greta left the Black Dragon Tavern and returned to her inn where she decided to sleep off the effects of the drug the orcs slipped into her drink and call it a night.

Greta survived and earned 129 Adventure Points! 49 for d'lcsta and 80 for the orcs. Plus she doubled her gold and now has some nifty Wombat Venom! She is hurting; once the effects of the drug wears off she will have a current constitution of 39.

The armor is a huge advangate, but I will definetly be using Spite damage for all of my combats from now on.

Dice

Tim over at Gothridge Manor made a quick post today entitled "The Way I Play". He mentioned how he enjoys the sound of dice. Yes. I too enjoy the rattle of dice. One of the reasons I always find myself eventually returning to D&D, or one of its clones, is I love all the different shapes of die; however, I really dig the d20.

I have a favorite d20. I'd post a picture of it, but I am out of town and my dice are 300 miles to the North. It is white with black numbers. The corners are slightly rounded. It rolls really well, typically high. If there were a game in Vegas that involved the d20, I would take it, my toothbrush, about $200, and return with 10 times the cash.

It even has a nickname: The PC Killer +20. My players have considered making it disappear on me. I hope they never do. I love that die.

I don't allow virtual dice rollers at my table. No Sir. Real dice only.

I really wish I was in town to game tomorrow evening.

Sigh.

Solo Delving - The City of Terrors

In anticipation of a play-by-post, Tunnels and Trolls game that I have joined, I decided to give a solo adventure a go.

I own a small number of them, but have never given them much thought. I've always intended to try them; however, I had not gotten around to it. I decided upon Michael Stackpole's The City of Terrors. From what I read, I knew I was picking a tough one to start out with, but I've wanted to dig into this one since I bought it. The edition I own is pictured in this blog. It is a Corgi edition.

From what I've read and the little I've chatted with other T&T enthusiasts, this is a classic. The adventure takes place in the city of Gull. From what I understand, this solo is detailed enough to stand as a gazette of the the city.

For those that care about such things, I used the standard rules included in the solo itself. One change I did make, is I rolled 4d6 for character creation stats, dropping the lowest die and keeping the highest three.

My stay in Gull was short lived.

My character:

Name: Halk the Pretty

Kindred: Troll

Type: Warrior

ST: 45

INT: 15

IQ: 13

LK: 16

CON: 36

DX: 11

CHR: 13

SPD: 11

Personal Adds: +35

Armor: Complete Leather (6 Hits Taken doubled for being a Warrior to 12)

Weapons: Scimitar (4d+0 adds)

Trappings: Warm dry clothing & Pack (I didn't have enough money left to buy anything else)

Money: 5 gold

Halk the Pretty, named so for his charisma score of 13, didn't last long.

SPOILER ALERT: For those that wish to play this solo, be warned I'm handing out spoilers beyond this point. The text in [brackets] indicates where Halk went and/or the decisions I made for him.

Halk, after finding himself a room and paying a rather exorbitant amount of money for it, made is way to the city square [115] just outside his hotel. Wishing to explore, he headed east on the Dark Way [152] .

On the Dark Way, Halk entered a room in the center of which was an old woman. The old lady was gray haired, wore a shawl and had cats everywhere. Halk decided to speak with her [8].

She told Halk her name was Madame Chayalla. Apparently, she does not like intruders and deals with them ruthlessly; however, Halk is "Halk the Pretty" (and since he is a troll, the old bat is obviously near sighted), she told him that since he was so handsome, she would grant him one chance to save himself. Behind her were two doors. Halk was told to choose one: left or right. Halk flipped a coin, and chance took him to the right [51].

Fate was not kind to Halk. Beyond the door was a vicious tiger with an MR of 100. Combat lasted two rounds, neither of which went well for Halk the Pretty.

Thus ended the short adventuring life of Halk the Pretty.

I do believe the next time I give this a go, I'll fight with two weapons. I may even find a solo meant for starting characters and give it a go first.

GRRM's "A Dance with Dragons" -- Do I Care?

GRRM has finally finished the fifth tome in his "Song of Ice and Fire" series. The release date is July 12, 2011 and this time, he promises he isn't just making shit up. I had lots of enthusiasm for this series during the first three books, but after waiting too long for book four (five years) and finding the fourth volume lacking, my inertia for the series waned. For those not familiar, Martin's books really cooked all the way to the end of book three. Book four moved away from the main characters and took the story no-where (shades of Robert Jordan). Martin followed this sucker-punch to his fans by first promising a fast turn around between books four and five, but ultimately he made us wait six more years. That makes a total of eleven years without the story moving forward.

I resisted reading George Martin's "Ice and Fire" books. Years before, I was talked into Robert Jordan's Rand Land books a go (The Wheel of Time). I gave up after five books in total despair and cursed the terminology "Epic Fantasy". The only reason I ever picked up A Game of Thrones by GRRM, was I was deployed in the Middle East (this was shortly after the events of 9/11) and couldn't afford to be picky about my reading materials, due to the fact that they were in short supply. I picked up AGoT, only because it was long and was a fantasy novel. I enjoyed it so much, I begged my wife to purchase and mail me a copy of book two, A Clash of Kings. I ripped through both volumes while deployed. When I returned stateside, I bought a copy of A Storm of Swords. Finishing that in mid-2002, I waited three more years for book four A Feast for Crows, for which I all ready stated my disappointment.

One of my long time players is a fan of the series, I talked him into reading it. He plans on buying his copy of Dance on publication date, and has even recently re-read the first four books. I'm not so sure I will.

I am leaning towards waiting for a few reasons. The foremost is, I wish to express my anger with Martin for leading his fans on for eleven years. I plan on doing so by not purchasing his book in hard cover. I may wait for the paperback, but I prefer to wait until I find a copy in a used book store. I don't want one penny of my money to go to GRRM.

Fuck him.

Comics: Warlord of Mars #4 (Dynamite Comics)

Way back in January, I got a hold of Warlord of Mars issues 1 to 3 and wrote of them. Also, this morning, I read and gave my opinion of "Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris #1".

I've been busy with work and life as of late, and did not pick up my comics for over a month. I have been reading them all last week. The first one I read was "Warlord of Mars #4".

The issue continues Arvid Nelson's adaption of ERB's A Princess of Mars and brings the story from John Carter's first experience battling a white barsoomian ape to just past his first meeting with Dejah Thoris.

I don't have much to say. The art is great, it is illustrated by Lui Antonio. More can be read of him here. My issue features a cover by Lucio Parrillo, examples of his comics art can be seen here.

My only complaint, and it is a minor one, is I was enjoying the Tars Tarkas back-up feature in the first two issues, and I was hoping to see either more Tars Tarkas back-ups, or stories of other characters from the Barsoom series. Maybe a Sola feature.

There is a back-up feature of sorts and it is interesting. Pages from the journal of John Carter are offered and this issues feature is an examination of the child rearing practices of the Tharks.

Joe Jusko's Dejah Thoris: Interesting Article on the Process of Art.

My previous perverted rant on my love for Dejah Thoris prompted me to read up on Joe Jusko. I came across this article at comicbookresources.com. If you enjoy seeing the process of art, like I do, it is an interesting read. Click here for the article.

I'm in Love with Dejah Thoris (Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris #1 - Dynamite Comics)

Yes, it is true. I even told my lovely wife that if things ever end badly between her and I, Dejah Thoris is the woman for me.

I picked up my weekly comics this afternoon at my favorite local comics shop. I normally do not go for the whole "multiple covers" gimmick, but I had a hard time choosing between the four covers offered at my store for this issue. I decided upon my favorite two of those available. Pictured immediately to the left is the cover by Paul Renaud that I purchased (check out his page here for more samples of his art). I also had to have the cover pictured below it by Joe Jusko (click here for more art by Jusko).

I have had a thing for Dejah Thoris ever since I got turned onto ERB's A Princess of Mars late last year. Anyone who has read a fair amount of Burroughs knows that he always has a love interest for his heroes (most often a princess) and they are interchangeable variations on the same theme. Burrough's ability to write strong, in-depth female characters was not, in my opinion, his strong suit. That aside, when I read his initial description of Dejah Thoris in A Princess of Mars, I fell in love (read - "lust"):

Her face was oval and beautiful in the extreme, her every feature was finely chiseled and exquisite, her eyes large and lustrous and her head surmounted by a mass of coal black, waving hair....Her skin was of a light reddish copper color, against which the crimson glow of her cheeks and the ruby of her beautifully molded lips shone with a strangely enhancing effect.

And of course, do not forget the fact that she was: ...destitute of clothes...indeed, save for her highly wrought ornaments she was entirely naked, nor could any apparel have enhanced the beauty of her perfect and symmetrical figure.

I instantly fell in love (again, read "lust"), for know this reader, my vision of beauty includes large lustrous eyes, coal black hair and as to complexion, I like an exotic, darker hued look. Naked never hurts.

The second cover by Joe Jusko features another weakness of mine towards the fairer sex, I love a shapely bum. Yes, I am a good-girl art pervert.

I do not own this cover which features a topless illustration by the great Arthur Adams, but I would be willing to shell out some bucks on ebay to correct that dilemma. While I am primarily an "Ass-Man" I have nothing against, and welcome, a well endowed chest. Ahem. I'm just sayin'...

As to the comic itself - aside from my unnatural attraction to an imaginary character that was created 100 years ago and my perverted joy of gazing upon well drawn, nearly nude (or nude), lovely women - it is a good read.

I immediately read it upon returning home. Like the regular Warlord of Mars series, it is written by Arvid Nelson. Mr. Nelson has promised to give his readers a more in depth look at the character of Dejah Thoris then her creator Edgar Rice Burroughs did.

The story opens on the inside cover with a literary trick that ERB used frequently in his stories. The story's narrator is Edgar Rice Burroughs who, in the context of A Princess of Mars was introduced as the nephew of John Carter, referred to as "Uncle Jack" by the narrator. In issue #1 of this series, a short letter dated 1919 from the narrator is presented as a prologue to the story itself.

In this short letter, it is learned that the narrator while renovating his Uncle Jack's cottage in upstate New York, comes across a locked strong box. The strong box contains hand written pages by John Carter. Burroughs discovers in these pages tales of the life of Dejah Thoris, dictated by her to Carter, and written down by him for record. Since barsoomian's do not age after reaching maturity, and Dejah Thoris was over 4 centuries old when Carter met her, this promises to be the first of several tales.

The story itself takes place 437 years before the coming of John Carter to Barsoom. It opens in the midst of a civil war between the twin cities of Greater and Lesser Helium. Both cities fall under the leadership of Jeddak Yorn. Lesser Helium, ruled by Dejah Thoris' grandfather Tardos Mors and his son Mors Kajak, is about to strike a winning blow against Greater Helium when an envoy from Jeddak Yorn arrives to announce an end to hostilities with a marriage between his own son, Dor Valian, and Princess Dejah Thoris.

All are shocked and angry, but Dejah accepts her fate and hopes that by doing so she can put an end to further bloodshed. The story develops and it is learned that Dor Valian is a pudgy, poetry reading scholar, not at all a warrior; however, he states his sympathies to Dejah Thoris and tells her that he knows how awkward and sudden this must seem to her and that he will do his best to honor her.

I don't wish to give more any of the story away, but do encourage you to give it a read. Arvid Nelson and the folks at Dynamite Comics are thus far doing an admirable job of presenting ERB's stories with great respect and I look forward to this series as a new and previously unexplored chapter of the Barsoom saga. "Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris" issue 1 is the first part of 5 issues and I believe it will be a continuing series.

All of the covers offered to issue 1 and sample pages from the comic can be found here.

Re-Imagining the Iconic D&D Monster: the Kobold

Here's my short jump onto the James Maliszewski band wagon.

Kobolds in my D&D campaigns were created as the result of a magical mishap. No one remembers the specifics, but at least two were made: one male, one female.

I rarely use them as encounter fodder; instead, they serve as a poor man's henchmen, most often in the form of slavery. They can be bought cheaply, and will eat just about anything and seem to have "cast-iron" stomachs. Thus they are often fed rotten foods and spoiled meats. They don't seem to mind.

The good thing about kobolds is that they make for cheap slave labor. Their nature leans towards followership to the point that it is odd to find a kobold with an idea of his/her own. They do not however make perfect slaves as their loyalty only lasts until someone else comes along to bully them into betraying whomever they were serving. They also have the attention span of the average gold fish. Most often they are used for menial labor that doesn't take much thought. They are remarkable in one aspect. Despite their seemingly inane stupidity, they learn simple tasks quickly and never seem to forget how to do something. So while it is doubtful that a kobold would be able to master the craftsmanship to become a leather worker, if shown how to properly cure and clean a hide a kobold put to task doing so would do so with no supervision. A typical kobold is able to master one task. So continuing the same example, while the Master Leather worker may have a kobold slave he has trained to cure hides, he would be pushing it to expect that same kobold to learn how to tan, or for that matter, sweep the floor.

While kobolds are sometimes used in combat as canon fodder, it really isn't their best use, as kobolds are cowardly by nature. Most kobolds live amongst others. In every human centric city, kobolds are found. Typically, they do not live in a "wild" state. Occasionally roaming packs of kobolds are found, these are usually the result of their masters having met a short end, but they are easily defeated, or captured. The greatest threat kobolds offer is that they have short pregnancy periods, and mature quickly. A typical female kobold can spawn two litters averaging three pups each, twice a year. Pups reach maturity in two years. For this reason, kobolds are often eunuchs. Those that are not too often cause a population problem that must be dealt with by the city watch, or a band of adventurers looking to make some easy coin.

The Enemy Within Session 6 Report (WFRP)

After an unexpected delay of a week, the group was able to get together to play out session 6.

Action picked up immediately where session 5 left off. Having discovered a secret door behind a book shelf, the characters - plus Rudolf the Protagonist - entered the secret door and followed a trail of blood they presumed was left by the head of Emilo Valantina, the now headless former leader of the Valantina Gang.

A short off topic bit here, one of the things I like about the Old World setting of WFRP is that there is no "Thieves Guild" like that found in most D&D settings; instead, a community will have one or more gangs, how many depends upon the size of the community. These gangs sometimes work in unison, dividing the vices so to speak, in an attempt not to step on each others' toes. Some are not so civil and are often at odds with each other. Many of these "gangs" are guilds in disguise. One common "guild" that is in reality a "gang" are stevedores and teamsters. Often both guilds are legally recognized by the community they operate in, but in reality, they are strong armed gangs making just as much, often more, from smuggling and racketeering operations. My last campaign was based in Marienburg, and I made heavy use of this theme, as all of the characters worked for the Stevedore "Guild".

Back on topic, the secret passage opened onto a roughly cut set of stairs which, as could be told from smell before sight, led into a sewer passage. They were not long in the sewers before a vague humanoid shape was seen bearing a whip. This vague shape was hunched and from its silhouette a snout and tail could be made out. The thing seemed to be driving a swarm of rats towards the party.

Another aside here. The players immediately thought "Skaven" when they saw the rat-like silhouette. In the Old World, there are rumors that a race of rat-men called Skaven live beneath the cities and towns. Some even believe that their lairs connect into a giant underworld. In this underworld, the Skaven worship their dark god - the Horned Rat - and plot to enslave mankind and rise up as the dominate race. Of course many do not believe that the Skaven exist; even though it is written in history that they once nearly overthrew the Empire. Many believe the tales of a secret race of rat-men are exaggerations. While it is believed that a horde of chaos nearly once destroyed the Empire, many scholars are now of the opinion that it was a horde of Beastmen that just happened to appear "rattish".

Back on topic, the swarm of rats soon overtook them and it was obvious that they had to escape quickly or die a slow death of numerous rat bites. A handy abandoned, but operational, mine cart served as an expedient escape. After making their escape, they discovered that they were not alone in the mine cart. There was a rat chewed body, covered in plague like boils. Also in the cart was an equally disfigured head. Upon the body, they discovered the item that Alphonse Oldenhaller had dispatched them to find.

The mine cart landed them in the Huyderman Gangs' base within the Asylum. They Huydermans' were also under attack, but not from the Valantina Gang. The Huydermans were under attack from some strange cultists and some sort of hideous beast. One of the cultists was a Warlock in league with the Ruinous Powers. The remaining four Huydermans joined forces with them.

The players were nervous about this combat, but in the end, they made some lucky rolls and escaped with a pretty easy win.

Suspecting that they would not get paid, they sent Rudolf - who seemed as baffled by the evenings' events as the player characters - to arrange things with Three Fingered Willy and Alphonse Oldenhaller. A meeting was set up at a ware house belonging to the Oldenhaller Mercantile Family.

At the ware house, they were greeted by Three Fingered Willy and four thugs in either his employ or Alphonse's. When Alphonse entered the room, he looked quizzically at Bartolf and uttered in the form of a question a single world: "Kastor?" Immediately after he did this, he was stabbed from behind by one of the thugs wielding a wicked looking dagger shaped as a tooth. Three Fingered Willy and the other thugs, but not Rudolf, raised similar daggers as Willy shouted "FOR THE YELLOW FANGS!"

Before Willy and his thugs could attack the characters, if they ever were going to, they in turn were attacked from a hidden enemy concealed in the rafters. The "assassin" was never revealed; however, he attacked with weapons of a strange nature. The PCs escaped the ware house as it burned, but aside from recovering a lock box containing 30 GC's, they were never paid.

The PC's spent a few more days in Nuln. They were eventually approached by Rudolf. He told them that things were getting hot in Nuln as the Schatzenheimer Gang were busily trying to find anyone involved in the events of their night at the Asylum, plus Albrecht Oldenhaller was seeking out those responsible for his brother's death. He strongly suggested that they all get out of Nuln.

He has a plan. He has a cousin in Mittlesdorf that is running a gang of outlaws and he is sure he can get the characters on, if they wish.

This adventure is not my own. It is "The Oldenhaller Contract", an adventure that originally appeared in the first edition WFRP rule book. Having never run it before, I decided to give it a go. It was fun, lots of twists and turns. It was later updated for 2nd edition and is available here as a free download.

We will be playing next Tuesday the 15th of March, but work will force me to take a two week break after that.

Hot Elf Chick Summons the Ghost of Gary Gygax

Yup, I'm doing it too, and it is all this guy's fault. even though technically Zooey Deschanel is not an elf in the movie Elf, but is just dating one, and no, she isn't summoning the ghost of Gary Gygax. Hey, I don't care. I've been in love with her since I first laid eyes on her. Since you're here, and on the off chance that you are here because you know who Gary Gygax was, check out these ultra cool links to free geek swag:

A Quick Primer to Old School Gaming by Matthew Finch

Swords & Wizardry, a 0E Retro-Clone

Or my personal favorite, Basic Fantasy Role-Playing

Groo versus Conan, Thomas Yeats, New ERB Book

Yes. It is true. A Groo/Conan comic is in the mix. I read about this news on one of my favorite Conan related blogs Crom! here. I direct you there for more information, not to mention, if you dig Conan, like I dig Conan, you will enjoy the blog.

I would also direct you to Thomas Yeat's website here. While Sergio Aragones is drawing Groo, Yeats is drawing Conan. At his site, link above, sample pages can be found.

When visiting Yeat's site, I would direct your attention to the fact that he has advertised there an upcoming project that Edgar Rice Burrough's fans will find exciting: an adaption of The Outlaw of Torn titled The Outlaw Prince. More details found here.

This puts me in a good mood, a new Conan comic featuring my favorite Conan parody in Groo, plus a new ERB project.

Appendix N Birthdays: March

These are the people that started it all. Without their imaginations, this hobby that we all love may never have been. When applicable, the date of their death is provided. Each month also features "Honourable Mentions". This section is composed of people not listed on Appendix N, but geeky cool, and/or inspiring in some nerd fashion. It is also of course completely subjective and based upon my own opinion. Please notify me if I've missed anyone from Appendix N, made any errors, or if you feel someone should be added to the Honourable Mentions column and please tell me why they should be added.

There is a third column: "Hot Geek Crush of the Month", in which I choose a lovely lady to honor that has some geek cred. Necessary you ask? No, but it is another excuse for me to post pictures of lovely women.

Appendix N:

There are no births for the month of March from those authors listed on the Appendix N list; however, I would be remiss if I did not mention the deaths of two great men that much lore of fantasy gamings is owed: Edgar Rice Burroughs passed March 19, 1950 and Gary Gygax himself died March 4, 2008. RIP.

Honorable Mentions:

March 1: Dirk Benedict (B: 1945; the original Starbuck)

March 3: James Doohan (B: 1920/D: July 20, 2005; Scotty of Star Trek)

March 5: Jake Llyod (B: 1989; painful, but Anakin Skywalker Star Wars: The Phantom Menace)

March 5: Dean Stockwell (B: 1936; Al of Quantom Leap and many other roles)

March 11: Douglas Adams (B: 1952/D: May 11, 2001; The Hitchhiker's Guide novels and others)

March 13: L. Ron Hubbard (B: 1911/D: January 24, 1986; SF author and Scientology founder)

March 22: William Shattner (B: 1931; Captain James T. Kirk USS Enterprise)

March 26: Leonard Nimoy (B: 1931; Spock, this is a big month for Star Trek births)

March 29: Lucy Lawless (B: 1968; Xena and Spartacus: Blood and Sand)

March 31: Ewan McGregor (B: 1971; Obi-Wan of those other so called Star Wars movies)

Hot Geek Crush of the Month:

This was a hard choice to make, but I just spent the better part of the weekend watching Spartacus: Blood and Sand, from which I must say WOW-ZA!