June Round-Up Plus Doctor Who Gets a New Composer

It’s been awhile since I’ve done one of these (see here for an explanation of my absence if you haven’t seen it already), and there’s not a whole lot to cover in the past month. But it does feel good to be getting back into the swing of things again.

Much of my recent stuff has involved getting caught up on things I should have done ages ago, so that means finally getting a review up of the Doctor Who Series 10 finale, “The Doctor Falls”, as well as last December’s Christmas special, “Twice Upon a Time”, featuring David Bradley as the first Doctor and introducing Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth.

I also began catching up on the large number of Pathfinder products I intend to review, beginning with a return to the Giantslayer Adventure Path with the third instalment, Forge of the Giant God, as well as Adventurer’s Guide.

Pathfinder and Doctor Who have tended to make up the bulk of my posts (and there will continue to be lots of those), but I want to expand into covering more of other things as well. In particular, I’m intending to have a few more reviews of novels, and I started this past month with a review of The Savior’s Champion by Jenna Moreci.

Perhaps most exciting for me, however, is my own novel, which I am currently looking for beta-readers for! The Child of the Volgs is an epic fantasy novel that I have been working on for quite some time, and beta-reading is an important stage in the development of any book. It allows the author (in this case, me) to get feedback from a variety of different people, which the author can then use to help in further revisions. For the beta-readers themselves, it presents an opportunity to see and be involved in the process of creating a book. You can help make the book into the best book it can be! I’ve got several beta-readers already, but I could definitely use more. If you’re interested please check out my Beta-Read page for full details.

Looking to the future, I’ve got a review of the Pathfinder Module The House on Hook Street coming up in the next couple days. I’ll also be getting to more Giantslayer this month and hopefully a few other things as well. There will also be another novel review. With Doctor Who not currently on the air, there won’t be any new reviews (unless I finally mange to get back to finishing my Series 8 reviews), but I do hope to do a couple of Doctor Who-related posts, including a look back at the entirety of the Steven Moffat era of the programme. That might not happen in July (it’ll depend on how much time I have), but it is definitely a goal before Series 11 starts around October (no confirmed start date at this point). Of course, I’ll probably cover any major Doctor Who news that comes out.

That said, so far, there’s not been a whole lot of news about what to expect in the new series (which I kind of like—it maintains the surprise), but a few things in the year I was gone that I didn’t cover included the actual announcement of Jodie Whittaker as the thirteenth Doctor and then, later, the reveal of her costume (see picture at top of post), which took a brief time to grow on me, but I now really like. There was also the announcement of who would be playing her companions: Bradley Walsh as Graham, Mandip Gill as Yasmin, and Tosin Cole as Ryan. It’s been a long time since the Doctor has had three companions (the last time was during the fifth Doctor’s time with Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric), so I’m very intrigued to see how the series handles the larger TARDIS crew.

It was also announced some time back that Murray Gold, who has composed the music for Doctor Who since it returned in 2005, would not be returning for Series 11. Just a couple days ago, it was announced that Segun Akinola would be the new composer. I generally liked Murray Gold’s music for the show, but he was there for a long time, and Doctor Who has always thrived on change. With the début of a new Doctor (particularly the first female Doctor), this is as good a time as any to change up the music, and I look forward to hearing what Akinola brings to the series. As far as I’m concerned, there are exciting times ahead for Doctor Who and I look forward to October (or whenever the new series starts).

Anyway, thanks to everyone who reads this blog! Have a great July!

Beta-Readers Needed!

Hey folks! I’m writing a book! In fact, I’ve been writing it for quite a long time now, and it’s finally reaching the stage where I can start thinking about eventual publication. But first, I need some beta-readers to provide me with some feedback to help make the book the best it can possibly be. I’m hoping that maybe a few of my readers on this blog might just be interested. If you are, I’ve set up a special page on this blog with complete details of what the beta-reading process entails and how you can get involved. Click here or on the link at the top of this page to get there.

Thanks!

Absences, Apologies, and a Look to the Future

I’ll cut to the chase. 2017 was one of the worst years of my life. I’ve tended not to talk about my own personal mental health issues, but over the last few years, they keep interfering with my ability to put out creative content, and I feel it’s about time I offer an explanation.

I’ve long had issues with depression and especially anxiety, but I’ve also had a tendency to deny it to myself. This has not made for a good combination. Social stigma against mental illness is a real issue and, while I have been vocal against it and in defence of others with mental illness, I have applied that stigma to myself. I have felt ashamed of my anxiety and of myself. So while I would admit to a bit of anxiety, I would deny the extent of it, deny any depression entirely, and pretend everything was just fine. This has led to all kinds of obstacles in life, both professional and social. This most recent absence from this blog was not the first due to things like imposter syndrome getting the better of me.

The fact that my spouse had health issues (both physical and mental) made it easier to pretend my own didn’t exist. I could focus on providing support for her because I could consider her issues more important than my own, and thus mine didn’t need any attention. But through all that time, my issues were bubbling under the surface.

My spouse and I separated in December 2016 and we broke up completely the following April. I no longer had a shield against my own problems and I spiralled into the worst depression I have ever had. 2017 was hard, so very, very hard. It didn’t help either that my financial situation was in a critical state. More than a few times I feared losing everything I had.

But on the good side, it did make me realise that I needed help. I’ve been seeing a very good therapist since January 2017 and I’ve made a lot of progress. Things are still far from perfect, but I’m in a much better state than I was a year ago, and I think I might be ready to face the world again and, in some ways, face it for the first time ever. In particular, I’m hoping to be able to work past my imposter syndrome when it comes to my writing and get not just this blog back into shape, but also kick my hopes for a professional writing career into first gear. I don’t expect there to be no stumbling blocks along the way—there absolutely will be (just this past week, I’ve had another depressive bout brought on partly by a stressful trip to visit family)—but I hope I can work for real change in my life.

First, however, over the past couple years, I’ve let a number of people down. There are several things I promised to write for people that I never completed, from reviews of products that I received a complimentary copy for, to assorted general posts. To these people, I offer my sincerest apologies. I can’t really erase the past, but I can strive to do better in the future. I hope only that people will be understanding and offer me that chance.

So, what does all this entail for the future of Of Dice and Pen? Well, I’ve already posted my review of “The Doctor Falls”, the finale of Doctor Who Series 10. My review of December 2017’s Christmas special, “Twice Upon a Time” should be up in the next few hours, or tomorrow at the latest.

I’ve got a ton of Pathfinder material to gradually get through and review, including finishing the Giantslayer Adventure Path, which I had begun reviewing before my most recent absence.

I also want to expand this blog beyond mostly Pathfinder and Doctor Who. I’ve always intended to include more diverse science fiction and fantasy topics, but rarely managed to get round to it. I’m not sure how successful I’ll be this time, but I have a fantasy novel review written (just needs an editing pass) that will be going up in the next day or two.

Most exciting for me is that I will soon be officially announcing a call for beta-readers of my own novel, The Child of the Volgs! I’ll have full details in a few days, but for now, this is just a little advance warning.

Of course, over the last year, I’ve missed a number of big announcements that I would normally want to comment on. In fact, I would still like to comment on many of them. I don’t know how quickly I’ll get to them (time constraints may mean I don’t get to them at all), so I thought I’d offer some quick comments on two of them.

Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor: Super excited! It’s overdue time we had a woman Doctor, and I think Whittaker is perfect casting. I’ve seen and loved a lot of her other work (Broadchurch probably being the most well known, but seriously, you should check out Adult Life Skills, which is a brilliant movie), and I can’t wait to see her take on the Doctor.

Pathfinder 2nd Edition: I’m not as excited about this. I’ve been paying attention to many of the previews, and I like some of what I see and dislike some other things. However, it also seems to be a much bigger change than I want at this time. I still have a ton of Pathfinder books that I’ve never had the opportunity to use (particularly Adventure Paths I want to run) and the amount of conversion effort it appears will be needed to change them to 2nd Edition is more than I care to give at this time. Still, I’m approaching it with an open mind, and could well change my opinion by the time it releases in August 2019.

Anyway, that’s all for now. Thank you to all of you who read this blog and my writing. I appreciate you all. Have a happy Pride Month!

Site Mutations

You may have noticed some changes to the site over the past couple of days. I’ve been tweaking the look, mostly altering colour schemes and fonts. Over the years, while I’ve received many comments on the content of Of Dice and Pen (most of it positive, thankfully), I haven’t received much response about the look. However, what comments I have received have almost universally been to say how much they dislike white text on black backgrounds.

I’ve done a little research and discovered that there is a pretty intense debate about the benefits and disadvantages of white-on-black versus black-on-white. Personally, I prefer white-on-black and actually find that easier to read than black-on-white, and so that’s what I went with for Of Dice and Pen originally. However, white-on-black really does seem to cause problems with some people, whereas black-on-white doesn’t seem to cause as many, and so I’ve gotten rid of the white-on-black scheme.

I may continue to fiddle with the look of the site over the next little while, so don’t be surprised if things change a bit from visit to visit. I do welcome any feedback you might have.

February (and December/January) Round-Up Plus Pathfinder Humble Bundle

So it's been an interesting couple of months. A number of things, particularly family health issues, have meant that I've completed a lot less writing than I intended to, and I've fallen considerably behind schedule on getting caught up on all the reviews I need to do. However, the situation is improving and the frequency of reviews should improve along with it!

Since my last round-up, Doctor Who Series 9 came to an end with the amazing “Heaven Sent” and not-so-amazing “Hell Bent”. Then, just a couple weeks later, there was the 2015 Christmas special, “The Husbands of River Song”. During that time, I also wrote a review looking back on the entirety of Series 9. In that, I made mention of a planned retrospective on Clara as a companion and said to expect it in early January. Obviously, that hasn't happened yet, but I still intend to write it, and hope to have it up in the next week or so—definitely before the end of March. I'm also looking to get back to my Series 8 reviews by late March or early April.

In January, news came that Steven Moffat will be leaving Doctor Who after Series 10. In the wake of that news, there has been a lot of speculation on whether Peter Capaldi will be leaving as well and who might replace him. So far, however, there has been no actual announcement of his departure and I, personally, hope he sticks around for another year or two. Of course, we'll have to wait and see, but just because then-current David Tennant left when Russell T Davies left doesn't mean Peter Capaldi has to leave with Moffat.

Also in January, for a bit of fun, I posted this little 60's gem.

On New Year's Day, the new Sherlock special, The Abominable Bride, aired. I haven't reviewed it yet. I will though.

On the roleplaying side of things, since my last round-up, I've written reviews of We Be Goblins Free!, Andoran, Birthplace of Freedom, Familiar Folio, Occult Realms, Lost Treasures, and Ranged Tactics Toolbox. I also looked at the hardcover Pathfinder Unchained and completed the remaining instalments of the Iron Gods Adventure Path: Valley of the Brain Collectors, Palace of Fallen Stars, and The Divinity Drive. Be sure to check out any you haven't read. Coming up next will be Melee Tactics Toolbox and the Iron Gods Player's Guide.

In other Pathfinder news, until March 9, you can purchase a ton of Pathfinder books (including the Core Rulebook) through Humble Bundle. Over $350 worth of books are available for...whatever you want to pay. Some require a minimum amount to unlock, but as little as $25 will get you them all. They are all PDF copies of the books plus a physical copy of the Beginner Box (if you unlock it; postage not included). It's an absolutely amazing deal, and proceeds go to charity (Humble Bundle even gives you the option to choose which charity). They have apparently raised over $500 000 so far. A small warning: This deal has apparently been more popular than expected, resulting in Paizo's site being overwhelmed by extra traffic. Downloading your purchases might be a bit slow, but worth the wait.

Here's to a great March!

November Round-Up, Pathfinder Adventure Path #100, Doctor Who Christmas Special, and Sherlock

The end of the year approaches and December looks to be a big month for science fiction and fantasy fans. The new Star Wars movie comes out, of course, but there's more going on too. But first, a look back over the month that's passed...

November was a good month. While I always seem to be just a little bit behind what I hoped for (I planned to have one more Pathfinder review up by now), I'm still on target to catching up with everything in about a year from now, and I have high hopes I'll get a lot of extra work done during the holidays this coming month. In November, I completed another seven Pathfinder reviews. They included this summer's big hardcover release, Occult Adventures, which introduced psychic magic to the game. Following along with that theme, I also reviewed a couple of the other recent occult-themed releases: Occult Origins and Occult Bestiary. I will have a review of Occult Realms sometime in December. I also continued my way through the Iron Gods adventure path in November with Lords of Rust and The Choking Tower. Along with those, I reviewed the Technology Guide, which is indispensable to people running the adventure path. Finally, I looked at Champions of Corruption, the third of the alignment books, this one looking at the evil alignments. Coming up next will be a review of this year's Free RPG Day release, We Be Goblins Free!

December sees the release of Pathfinder Adventure Path #100! Part of the current Hell's Rebels AP, it's an extra-large volume to commemorate the milestone. It's hard to believe that I currently have 99 volumes of Pathfinder Adventure Path sitting on my shelves. They take up much less space than you might expect, actually. It's still quite a bit though. When Dragon and Dungeon magazines came to an end a few years ago, I still had several issues left on my subscription, so I used the option Paizo provided at the time to convert the remainder into credit towards their new Pathfinder release. I was hooked pretty quickly and just kept on getting them. Unfortunately, given how far behind I am, it will be awhile before I get round to reading and reviewing #100, but I couldn't let this monumental event pass without at least mentioning it.

Series 9 of Doctor Who continued throughout November, and I kept on with my reviews of each episode. These included the two-parter that began with “The Zygon Invasion” and concluded with “The Zygon Inversion”, the experimental “Sleep No More” and the tragic “Face the Raven”. This past weekend saw the airing of another very experimental episode, “Heaven Sent”. I'll have my review of that up soon. After the conclusion of Series 9 this month, I intend to do something I haven't done previously, and that's to do a separate write-up on the entire series. This is because, while I've highly enjoyed many of the individual episodes, I've felt the series hasn't really held together very well. The overall narrative arc has been quite poor, I've felt, and I want to take the time to look at that in more detail.

For some fun news, just yesterday, Peter Jackson (of Lord of the Rings fame) posted a video about the long-standing rumours that he might direct an episode of Doctor Who. The video was recorded recently when Peter Capaldi was in New Zealand for a convention. There's every chance that the video is just Jackson and Capaldi having a bit of fun, but perhaps—just perhaps—it's a tease before an official announcement that Jackson really will be directing an episode. See my post from yesterday to watch the video.

In other Doctor Who news, the title of this year's Christmas special has been announced: “The Husbands of River Song”. While I have my criticisms of River Song, I am looking forward to seeing her and the 12th Doctor together for the first time. I expect Alex Kingston and Peter Capaldi will be amazing on screen together. Although it hasn't actually been announced, one other thing about the special is discernible from the publicity picture (at the top of this post): the Doctor apparently has a sonic screwdriver again! I'll be happy to see the last of the sonic sunglasses (assuming they'll be gone completely—there's nothing really stopping the Doctor from having both).

Also coming over the holiday season is a Sherlock special: The Abominable Bride. This will air on New Year's Day. Set in Victorian times, it's not technically a continuation of the Sherlock series, but it does contain all the same cast. Here's the latest trailer:

If for nothing else, this will be worth watching for Watson's spectacular moustache!

So December looks to be quite the month (okay, so Sherlock is technically in January, whatever). I'm looking forward to it!

October Round-Up, K9 Movie, and David Tennant and Catherine Tate Return!

It has now been exactly one month since I got things back up and running on Of Dice and Pen, and things have been going pretty well. I've actually had one of my most prolific months—which is good, considering I have a lot of catching up to do.

Talking of catching up, I've been developing a plan to get me through the high volume of Pathfinder material waiting for me. If everything works out, I hope to have myself fully caught up in about... 13 months. It's a long time, but considering I have about a year's worth of material to get through and there will be another year's worth of material released while I'm doing it all, another 13 months seems reasonable. As I mentioned a month ago, I plan to move about in the release schedule a bit, mixing up earlier and more recent releases. However, I will go through Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes in order.

In October, I got off to a good start, with reviews of the Strategy Guide and Monster Codex hardcovers, two excellent books (check out the links if you haven't already read the reviews). Other Pathfinder reviews were of People of the Stars, Inner Sea Monster Codex, Advanced Class Origins, and Iron Gods—Fires of Creation. I also wrote a review of the Pathfinder Compatible product, Monk Unfettered. Due to time and money issues, I don't get the opportunity to read and review very many 3rd-party Pathfinder books (my only other review of such a product was Random Urban Encounters in February 2013), so it was nice to do so this month. I hope to do more in the future as there are a lot of very good options out there.

Pathfinder reviews coming up soon will include Occult Adventures, Occult Origins, and the second part of Iron Gods, Lords of Rust. I had actually intended to have the first two of those out already (meaning that, technically, my schedule has already fallen a bit behind). They should be up in the next couple of days. I also intend to get to a few non-Pathfinder roleplaying reviews in the next month or two, including the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Rulebook (published for the 50th anniversary).

Of course, Doctor Who returned to screens this month! Yay! I have reviews of the first six episodes: “The Magician's Apprentice”, “The Witch's Familiar”, “Under the Lake”, “Before the Flood”, “The Girl Who Died”, and “The Woman Who Lived”. Check them out if you haven't already. I'll have a review of this week's seventh episode, “The Zygon Invasion”, up in a couple of days. Regarding the remaining episodes of Series 8 that I still need to review, I will get to them after Series 9 has finished.

Earlier this month, the BBC announced news of a new Doctor Who spin-off series, called Class. See the link for my initial thoughts on that. More recently, news has come of a possible Doctor Who-related movie: K9—Time Quake. This is not a BBC production or something being made through license with the BBC, but rather through one of K9's co-creators, Bob Baker. This means that, like the Australian TV series K9, it won't be able to directly reference Doctor Who. However, it will also feature the return of Omega (from the Doctor Who stories, “The Three Doctors” and “Arc of Infinity”). Bob Baker is also co-creator of Omega, meaning, like K9, he retains some rights to the character.

I have my reservations about this movie. The Australian TV series was not very good (see this post for my more detailed thoughts on it), and while this movie may only be superficially related to the series, it doesn't give me high hopes. But also, part of the problem of the series was that K9 really doesn't work as a lead character. It's why even K9 and Company, a show named after the robot dog, was really going to be a series about Sarah Jane Smith with K9 as her sidekick. The later Sarah Jane Adventures also kept K9 as a side character and not a major focus. This is really what K9 ought to be. I just don't think K9 has what it takes to be the lead of a full movie.

All that said, that makes two Doctor Who-related announcements this month that I'm rather wary of, and it's a bit of an odd feeling. I remember well the wilderness years of 1990-2005, when there was only one new official filmed Doctor Who production. Back then, the news of any spin-off—K9, Class, whatever—would have had me and other Doctor Who fans jumping for joy. How times have changed.

So, for some exciting news to end off with this month, David Tennant and Catherine Tate are returning to Doctor Who! Not in the television series (although they featured in a flashback sequence in “The Girl Who Died”), but in Big Finish's ongoing series of audio adventures. For the longest time, Big Finish was limited to only Doctor Who from 1996 and earlier. But recently, they've acquired the rights to several new series characters, such as Kate Stewart and John Hurt's War Doctor. Now the tenth Doctor and Donna have been added to the list. I'm pretty excited! Now, I just have to find the means to afford to actually buy some. Sigh.

Anyway, it's been great to be back this month, and I look forward to great times to come! Thanks to everyone for your continued reading!

The Long Absence Ends

Greetings, everyone! It's been a while, a much longer while than I expected or intended. At the end of October last year (almost a year ago!), I posted a short update on the slower pace of the blog. I was back at school upgrading my education, and that was keeping me exceptionally busy, but even then, I expected to get a few reviews and things written over the passing months, particularly over the December break. Alas, while it was a great program and I loved just about every moment of it, the schedule was exhausting and by the time December break came round, I was too exhausted to do anything other than rest. Then things restarted in January and were even busier.

The program finished a few months ago (I graduated with honours, by the way, and got my B.Ed. and official Ontario teacher certification, yay!), at which time I intended to take a couple weeks to rest and relax and then get back to updating this blog. But then various other things cropped up. A number of personal and family issues have gotten in the way. There have been several occasions where I thought things were all back to normal, but then didn't work out. Indeed, in early August, I responded to a comment on the blog asking if I'd be doing any more reviews, saying that I'd be back the very next day. I honestly meant it at the time! I had my review of the Pathfinder RPG Strategy Guide partially written and fully expected to have it finished and posted the next day. Then life happened, and nearly two more months have gone by.

Well, things have finally stabilised and posting has recommenced—hopefully to continue unabated. I realize that I've certainly lost readers in the long absence—it's not like they had anything to come and read—but with a little luck, maybe some of them will hear of my return and find their way back. I've actually been quite amazed that, even though the daily number of views for the blog have gone down considerably since last year, I've still been getting 100-200 views a day. My older posts still draw interest, it seems!

At any rate, looking to the future, here are my plans:

I had another extended absence in early 2012 (due to my wife's health issues). On that occasion, when I came back, I just skipped over everything I'd missed during that time. For example, I didn't review any Pathfinder books that were released during that gap. This time, I intend to do things differently. This time, I intend to cover everything I've missed, though it could take awhile because I've missed quite a lot.

For Pathfinder and other roleplaying reviews, I'm probably going to jump around a bit. I'll try to cover some recent releases as well as things released during the gap (such as my review posted yesterday of the Strategy Guide, which was released last spring). I'll be covering Adventure Paths in order, though, so those will start off with the first part of Iron Gods, Fires of Creation. I also intend to look at some of the more recent releases for the Doctor Who – Adventures in Time and Space game, recently renamed simply the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game.

Speaking of Doctor Who, I also intend to finish reviews of Series 8. I only got as far as “Time Heist” last year, leaving seven more (and the Christmas special) to complete. As you can see, though, I've already started into Series 9, which is currently airing. My review of “The Magician's Apprentice” is already up and I'll have a review of the second episode, “The Witch's Familiar” up sometime tomorrow (for real!). From here, I'll be reviewing each episode as I normally do, in the days immediately following their airing. At the present time, I don't know exactly when I'll get round the remaining episodes of Series 8. It might not be until after Series 9 has finished. However, since I've received a few requests for it, here are my very brief reactions to the rest of Series 8.

The Caretaker – I really loved this one. It was a great examination of social issues in the context of Doctor Who, and I really like Courtney.

Kill the Moon – Ugh. I didn't like this one much at all. It just didn't grab me. I was also rather annoyed that after building up Courtney in the previous episode, this one tosses her into the sidelines and does nothing to expand on her character. I was also later disappointed that she was pretty much discarded after this episode.

Mummy on the Orient Express – Great episode. Thrilling, well-paced. Loved it.

Flatline – Probably the stand-out episode of the series. It had a great concept, absolutely amazing monsters. Loved it.

In the Forest of the Night – This was basically “Kill the Moon” all over again. It was way too similar to “Kill the Moon” to come so soon afterwards. It also suffered from many of the same problems, including an unsatisfying, difficult-to-believe resolution.

Dark Water/Death in Heaven – I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I would say it's Moffat's best series finale so far. However, as much as I enjoyed it, I have a lot of nitpicks for this one. Individually, they're minor and ignorable, but there are so many of them that they become impossible to ignore. Still, a fun story, and even though it employs another “love saves all” ending, the emotional pay-off actually works this time (although the whole idea that “love is not an emotion; it's a promise” is just nonsense).

Last Christmas – Enjoyable, but nothing particularly special. It also had too many endings.

And so there you have it. Of course, I'll be throwing in a few posts on other things that catch my fancy, as I always have.

It's good to be back!

Addendum: You also may have noticed that the site's address has changed slightly as this blog now has its own domain! You can still reach the site from the old blogspot address as well.

A Note on Updates (or Lack Thereof)

People might have noticed a distinct lack of updates to this blog lately. In my August Round-Up, I briefly mentioned being back at school this year and that that was going to keep me very busy. Well, it's kept me far busier than I imagined. I'm in a practicum assignment on Mondays and Tuesdays. Then I have full-time classes from Wednesday to Friday. I also have to complete a couple hours of community service each week as part of the program. Of course, when I get home each day, I then have readings and assignments to attend to. It's a great program, but it's leaving me with very little time left over (and I'm also trying to earn a bit of money to live off of from part-time work as well). This all means, the blog updates have fallen way behind.

But don't worry. There will be more! They just won't be frequent for a while. When they do come, they will likely be in small bursts. For example, there will be at least two (hopefully three) new reviews up by the end of this weekend. I also have three weeks off in December, so I hope to do lots of catching up during that time. There are likely to be more reviews of programs like Doctor Who than of Pathfinder and other books (although one of this weekend's forthcoming reviews will be a Pathfinder review). This is for the simple fact that it takes less time to watch a program (even watch it twice, which is what I prefer to do when reviewing something) than it does to read an entire book.

My program ends in mid-May, at which time, I'll regain enough of a life to resume more frequent writing for this blog. In the meantime, I hope people will be patient with only occasional posting. Despite having no other posts this month, October has still managed to have the third-highest number of views ever to this blog, so I know people are still coming by. Thanks so much to everyone who reads!

August Round-Up: Doctor Who Returns Along With Doctor Who Extra!

I got behind on a bunch of projects in August (several of them for this blog), but it was still a pretty good month. A new school year is beginning now, and I'm actually back in classes myself this year, so it's going to be hectic and busy, but I'm at my best when it's hectic and busy. I'm quite looking forward to it!

Of course, August was all about the return of Doctor Who, with Peter Capaldi making his first outing as the Doctor! There was a new trailer early in the month, and we also learned that the new title sequence would be based on a fan-made sequence posted to YouTube last year. But August 23rd was the main event, as the first episode of the new season aired, and the second has aired now as well. I was quite impressed by “Deep Breath” and I was absolutely ecstatic about “Into the Dalek”. I'm always excited about new Doctor Who, but I'm feeling a much bigger thrill this year. Peter Capaldi is amazing in the role.

Also premièring in August along with Doctor Who was Doctor Who Extra. This behind-the-scenes programme is similar to Doctor Who Confidential, a programme that ran for several years from 2005 until the end of Series 6 in 2011, when it was cancelled. Doctor Who Extra, however, is much shorter than Confidential, which had 30-minute episodes in its early seasons and 45-minute episodes later on. Extra runs about 10 minutes per episode. The first episode of Extra has not been made available for viewing outside the United Kingdom, so I haven't seen it. I'm not sure why it isn't available as the second episode is, and all further episodes will also be available as they are released each week. You can watch the second episode in the player below:

To be honest, I was never much of a fan of Confidential, especially towards the end when they were clearly running out of ideas to fill up their full running time. Coming up with 45 minutes of extra material for every single episode of Doctor Who was really overreaching. Extra's shorter running time will likely be to its advantage in this respect. The “Into the Dalek” episode is entertaining and reveals some interesting behind-the-scenes information. Alas, even though it airs after Doctor Who, each episode of Extra is still essentially an advertisement for its associated Doctor Who episode, meaning that Extra is likely to suffer from a need to praise uncritically. I much prefer behind-the-scenes documentaries made well after their subject programmes, like the documentaries on classic Doctor Who DVDs and the DVDs of other older shows. Although memories may not be as fresh, the people involved are generally able to be more honest and reflective in recounting the making of the programme. They can say if they don't like a particular episode as much as other episodes. Likewise, when they declare a particular episode as their favourite, you can be confident it really is. With documentaries made at the same time as their subject programmes, those programmes always have to be portrayed as the greatest thing ever. At any rate, I'm curious to see how Doctor Who Extra turns out as the season progresses.

Moving on from Doctor Who, I didn't get round to a lot of Pathfinder things this month, but I did get in reviews of the final two parts of the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path: The Slave Trenches of Hakotep and Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh. There are several more reviews pending, including the Mummy's Mask Player's Guide, People of the Stars, and the Advanced Class Guide. Expect those in the next couple of weeks.

Have a great September, everyone!

June Round-Up Plus To Be Takei

June was a very busy month for me—in the non-virtual, non-internet world, that is. Consequently, it was a very slow month here on Of Dice and Pen. I was only able to get a few things posted, but July looks to be a quiet month, so I envision much more productivity here.

I did, however, get three Pathfinder review posted: Occult Mysteries, Shifting Sands, and Blood of the Elements. Coming soon, you can expect to see reviews of Numeria, Land of Fallen Stars and Secrets of the Sphinx, the fourth part of the Mummy's Mask Adventure Path.

June also saw the final couple episodes of Cosmos: “The World Set Free” and “Unafraid of the Dark”. It's only been a few short weeks, but I already miss seeing new episodes each week and writing about them. As I've said before, I think it's amazing that a science series has gotten such a high-profile showing, and I wish more science and documentary shows could receive the same treatment. Of course, just because they're not high-profile doesn't mean we can't seek them out and watch them. There are lots of options out there, and many very good ones, including Carl Sagan's original Cosmos series.

In the realm of science fiction/fantasy documentaries, here's one about Star Trek actor and LGBTQ icon and activist, George Takei: To Be Takei. I'm really quite excited to see this one, as George Takei is a fascinating and funny man.

And this Kickstarter for The Great Kingdom, a documentary about Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, the creators of Dungeons & Dragons, looks like it could be interesting. (Edit: Something weird was happening with the embedding of the preview for The Great Kingdom, so I've removed it. You can watch the preview at the site linked.)

But back in the realm of pure science fiction and fantasy, the exciting news is that Doctor Who will be returning on August 23, as reported in this post.

Have a great July everyone!

May Round-Up, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, and Doctor Who News

May and June are always busy months for me. It’s the end of the school year and that keeps me occupied preparing students for exams and final projects. Then comes the quiet of summer. I like the quiet of summer.

But no matter how busy I get, I always make certain to get some gaming and writing in. Here on the blog, I took a look at several Pathfinder products in May, including the hardcover release, Inner Sea Gods, as well as the Undead Slayer’s Handbook, the very good Alchemy Manual, Empty Graves, Inner Sea Combat, and my favourite of the bunch, The Harrow Handbook. I also got (and still am) very excited over the trailer for Dark Dungeons.

In related gaming news, the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons now has release dates for its initial products, beginning with a Starter Set in July, the Player’s Handbook in August, Monster Manual in September, and Dungeon Master’s Guide in November. A couple of adventures, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, both from Kobold Press, are interspersed with the other releases. Similarly to 4th Edition, the new edition is not being marketed as “5th Edition” or “D&D Next” or anything else, but simply as Dungeons & Dragons.

While the release of the new edition is likely to be big news, I’ll be honest and state that I won’t be switching to it, even though D&D was my first ever roleplaying game and I’ve been playing it in some form for over 30 years now. This isn’t because I don’t expect it to be any good. I haven’t actually been keeping much track of news about it, so I have very little idea what to expect from it. It might be good, it might be terrible, or it might be anything in between. However, the fact is, I’m quite happy with Pathfinder at the moment and see no need to change. I’ve also invested a lot of money in Pathfinder and have enough products now that, even if Paizo stopped publishing tomorrow, I’d have enough material to last me for decades yet. New stuff is fun, it’s true. I love getting new stuff. But I’m also not made of money and I have to decide carefully where my money goes. I will likely look at the new D&D in the store and I’m certainly not averse to playing in a game one day (although limited time will make that difficult), but I won’t be running games of it myself. I may well pick up one of the books one day, though, and if I do, I might just post a review.

In non-gaming news, I continue to be super excited about Cosmos, and I was disappointed that it was pre-empted on May 25th, which is why I haven’t posted a response in the last couple weeks. However, over the month I did write responses to 9th, 10th, and 11th episodes, “The Lost Worlds of Planet Earth”, “The Electric Boy”, and “The Immortals”. My review of this week’s episode, “The World Set Free”, will hopefully be up shortly after I get this post up.

The big Doctor Who news for the month is that the new series will première sometime in August (exact date still to be announced). The BBC released a very, very short teaser trailer for the series, which I mentioned in this post, along with the much more interesting Doctor Who parody production from the Hillywood Show. In the world of missing episode recoveries...no, no more missing episodes have been announced; however, an early recording featuring Jacqueline Hill (who played Barbara, one of the Doctor’s very first companions) has been found. It’s a production of the play Requiem for a Heavyweight, and also features a young Sean Connery from before he became famous as James Bond. You can read more about it on the Doctor Who News Page.

Have a good June, everyone!