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2 weeks ago | 
geekeratimedia.com | Christian Lindke
In my most recent Weekly Geekly Rundown, I mentioned that I worked on a Fantasy Heartbreaker called The Secret Fire and has expressed an interest in learning more about this game. All these years later, I’m still very proud of the game we put together. I think we could have deviated even more from the Open Source Document for the 3.5 Open Gaming License because I think the ways we pulled away from that were the spaces where really interesting design happened.
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3 weeks ago | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke |Mike Morgan |Ryan Howard |Rebekah King
As someone who has played a lot of games, I am always interested in seeing how a game addresses the issue of which player goes first. Turn order and initiative systems are fundamental design choices. Having the ability to act first can give a strategic or tactical advantage to the “first mover” in achieving the game’s winning conditions. Like the first mover advantage in business, this potential is dependent on many other factors.
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4 weeks ago | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke
Creating a new action franchise is a difficult process. It requires some combination of strong IP, star power, compelling narrative, and innovative action sequences. John Wick (2014) proved that it does not require a giant budget or a mission to save the world from destruction. When CBS Films' released American Assassinin 2017, they hoped to create a new action film franchise. The movie features Vince Flynn's CIA "consultant" Mitch Rapp and has many of the requisite components, but were they enough?
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2 months ago | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke
Discover more from The Geekerati Newsletter: Thoughts on Games & Pop CultureDiscussions of Film, TV, and Games with a dash of Political Science and Statistics from Time to Time. By subscribing, I agree to Substack's Terms of Use, and acknowledge its Information Collection Notice and Privacy Policy. I’ve been a fan of the Deadlands role playing game since it was first published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in the 1990s.
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2 months ago | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke |Rebekah King
I love Los Angeles. It is without a doubt my favorite city. It is burning and I’m worried about those I love. The Geekerati Newsletter: Thoughts on Games & Pop Culture is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. I have a fondness for a number of cities. San Francisco is great and home to many fond childhood/high school memories. Chicago is awesome and home to my beloved Cubs.
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Nov 15, 2024 | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke |Rebekah King |Matt Thompson
Sorry this is late. I’ve been remarkably busy. Every now and then I encounter a book that changes the way I think about the world. Sometimes a book has one insight and sometimes it has several. In the case of Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, I've lost count of the ways it has forced me to re-evaluate my perceptions. This is partly because the book covers a wide terrain of psychology and partly because it presents so many interesting observations.
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Nov 8, 2024 | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke
The Weekly Geekly Rundown will come out this weekend, but here’s some geeky analysis to tide you over. As I mentioned in a recent background post, I will be doing a series of articles looking at roleplaying games to analyze how they balance simulation and playability in the execution of their rules set. In that post, I asserted that every non-abstract game is a simulation of some central conceit.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke |Aaron Neuwirth |Wyrd Science |Matt Thompson
Wow! That was a long section title for this week’s Weekly Oddity, but it gets at the core tension that I want to discuss. Yesterday Anne Thompson, Editor at Large of IndieWire and one of the best film industry commentators, shared an article discussing how The Academy is cutting staff from their Archives and Library divisions as their Museum expands.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
geekeratimedia.substack.com | Christian Lindke
I've had many conversations with friends where I have posited that the best introductory role playing games for younger players -- ages 5 to 9 -- are the Pokemon Jr. Adventure Game by Bill Slavicsek and Stan!, Faery's Tale by Patrick Sweeney, Sandy Antunes, Christina Stiles, Colin Chapman, and Robin D. Laws, RPG Kids by Enrique Bertran aka NewbieDM, and Hero Kids by Justin Halliday.
