We’re starting another new series here at The Flickcast. This time around it’s all about books with the first edition of What We’re Reading. So, what are we reading? Today, it’s some helpful D&D books from author Keith Ammann.

These helpful D&D books are The Monsters Know What They’re Doing: Combat Tactics for Dungeon Masters and Live to Tell the Tale: Combat Tactics for Players. We know, those titles are kinda long, but they’re really good books, so we won’t hold it against him. In fact, the info in these books is so helpful and useful, we don’t mind if he uses twenty or thirty words for the title of his next one!

Moving on, you can probably guess these D&D books deal with various aspects of playing Dungeons & Dragons, especially combat. The first, targeted at Dungeon Masters . . .

“. . . lightens the DM’s burden by helping you understand your monsters’ abilities and develop battle plans before your fifth edition D&D game session begins. Just as soldiers don’t whip out their field manuals for the first time when they’re already under fire, a DM shouldn’t wait until the PCs have just encountered a dozen bullywugs to figure out how they advance, fight, and retreat.”

It really helps DM’s get inside the minds and motivations of NPC’s and creatures in the game. It also makes combat encounters more realistic and fun. Sounds great, right? We’ve used it during many of our games with great success. 

The second book is targeted at players and deals with their mindset and tactics during combat. It’s . . . 

“. . . an introduction to combat tactics for fifth-edition Dungeons & Dragons players, Live to Tell the Tale evens the score. It examines the fundamentals of D&D battles: combat roles, party composition, attacking combos, advantage and disadvantage, Stealth and Perception, and more…including the ever-important consideration of how to run away!”

It also offers several combat scenarios featuring character and monsters of increasingly higher level. This helps to better illustrate the tactics of each character class, abilities available at various levels, what to do with them during combat and the roles each class can play to help ensure combat success. It’s pretty cool. 

If you’re a D&D player, Dungeon Master (or both) and you want to improve your games, especially during combat, give these books a try. You’ll definately learn something. We sure did. 

You can find these books at Amazon, or your local bookstore. We get a lot of our books at Book People, which is one of our favorite local shops here in Austin. Please support local bookstores when you can. 

Keith’s next book, featuring more combat tactics and monsters from Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, is available for pre-order now. And in addition to the books, you can get more insights and info over at his blog.

What are you reading and enjoying these days? Let us know in the comments or hit us up on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. Happy reading!

Note: This post contains Amazon affiliate links.  
Artwork: Saga Press / Keith Ammann

We’re spreading the love here at The Flickcast. This time around it means the debut of another new series: Things We Love.

To kick us off, we’re turning to one of the things we love the most: Art Supplies. They’re always great to have on hand, especially if you’ve got kids, need activities at home during a global health crisis, or just want to create something beautiful.

Whatever the reason, art supplies are a must. They promote creativity, help you spend quality time with friends, family or on your own. And when you’re done you have a beautiful piece of art to hang on the wall or post to social media. Or both!

But what do you need? Well, it depends on what you want to create. There’s a wide variety of supplies for artists to express themselves in lots of different mediums.

For the purposes of this post, though, we’re going to focus on supplies for sketching, drawing, coloring and painting. Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list. It’s things we personally love and use.

You can always create in any way you want. But if you need help figuring out how to start or what you might need, we’ve got you covered. 

Ok, let’s get to it!

Pencils

Many great things start with a pencil. Sketch an outline, make some project notes, write a story or draw an entire picture. Whatever you want to create, sometimes all you need is a pencil.

Blackwing 602 – A beautiful pencil for writing, drawing or sketching.
Faber-Castell 9000 – A German brand offering a set with a variety of grades. These don’t break easily and sharpen well.
Staedtler Mars Lumograph – Like the Faber-Castell, these pencils have a place at the drawing tables of many artists around the world. We go back and forth on which is our favorite.
Caran d’Ache Graphite Line – Expensive? Yes. But these are the best drawing pencils you will even use. Although, the two above are no slouches either. 
Rotring RapidPro 600 – Mechanical pencils are great for sketching, layout and drawing too. This metal masterpiece is the top of the line and one we love.
Pentel P205 – We also use this mechanical pencil quite a bit. It’s great and a good value.

That’s right, it’s time for an all-new episode of The Flickcast! Finally. We had some issues this week. What are you gonna do? At least it’s out now, so enjoy!

On this week’s show Chris and Joe get down to the end. Well, the end of a couple TV shows anyway with the season finales of The Last Ship and the much-discussed Mr. Robot. There’s also some talk about the new The Force Awakens teaser, Star Wars in general, the need for more Batman in the next Superman movie, the genius of Jack Kirby and a whole lot more.

Picks this week include Chris’ pick of the book Kirby: King of Comics and Joe’s pick of the new album from the band Spock’s Beard.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship, or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, at Facebook, Google+ or via email.

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Do you remember the lead up to John Carter? How most people had a big problem with the marketing but many held a faint glimmer of hope that remained until the first reel ran in theaters opening weekend. Yeah, World War Z wishes it was generating that kind of reaction.

Basically, all of the worst parts of the bible would be an upgrade over the current approval rating of the upcoming PG-13 zombie epic. The stench of the film has been brewing for years, delays and behind the scenes instability have not provided any faith of a good adaptation of a book that is already hard to envision in cinemas. The problem is the structure of the book, it is an oral history not a linear narrative, and no one understands how a Brad Pitt saves the world film was the best that could be done.

So consensus is the film will be a terrible, no good, very bad adaptation and the best we are hoping for is a fun diversion wearing a WWZ pelt for warmth. Of course this leads to all the bitching and moaning about how the film’s existence is an affront to the loyal book fans who deserve better. Well cool your jets book worms and hipster wanna bes, there is a silver lining to this story and it alone more than justifies the looming horror of the upcoming film.

In this modern world of instant videos, tweets, Tumblr, Vine, Instagram and more, reading the printed word in a book can sometimes get left behind. Fortunately, the folks at Lucasfilm/Disney haven’t forgotten just how important reading is. In fact, in conjunction with partners like Del Rey, Scholastic and Dark Horse Comics, they’re helping celebrate reading by dedicating an entire day to it.

What are we talking about? Well, read on from the official press release to find out:

New York, NY – Lucasfilm, Disney Publishing Worldwide, and its publishing partners announced today the second annual Star Wars Reads Day to be held this October 5, 2013. Last year, 30 authors and 1,500 costumed volunteers participated in over 1,200 Star Wars Reads Day events across North America. On October 5 of this year, Star Wars fans, authors, and artists will again come together in this multi-publisher initiative that celebrates reading and Star Wars. Participating publishing partners include Abrams, Chronicle Books, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DK, Quirk Books, Random House Audio, Scholastic, Titan Magazines, and Workman.

“Star Wars Reads Day is the kind of initiative that we at Lucasfilm love to support” says Carol Roeder, Director of Publishing at Lucasfilm. “Reading and Star Wars have gone hand-in-hand since 1976, when the novelization of the original Star Wars movie was released. Over the years, many fans have discovered the joy in reading through Star Wars books, and we hope to continue encouraging more people to read.”

As geeks get older, they tend to accumulate more and more stuff. They also tend to move and/or end up with significant others who may not share their love of collecting things and never getting rid of them. Ever.

Consequently, some stuff may get sold, misplaced or just plain “lost.” Fortunately, if some of that stuff happens to be your original AD&D Second Edition Core Rulebooks, you’re in luck because Wizards of the Coast has got you covered.

That’s right, the company is re-releasing all three books, The Player’s Handbook, Monstrous Manual and Dungeon Master Handbook, in super nice premium editions for your reading, use and collecting pleasure. Of course, the three books contain all of the original content and art, but each rulebook has a new cover design to commemorate the reprint.

Each book will set you back $49.95. Yes, that’s a bit more than they originally cost, but if you need/want them, you need/want them, right? They would also make a fine gift for the D&D geek on your list this holiday season. Not that I’m dropping hints or anything.

We like many things in the world of movies, tv, comics and pop culture. The content of this post will include several of those. What could it be?

It’s a video. And in this video you’ve got geek icon Wil Wheaton reading from a new novel called Gun Machine by the extraordinary Warren Ellis featuring artwork from the amazing Ben Templesmith. In short, if you like any of the things we like, this video will have something for you.

Probably more than one thing. Enjoy and you’re welcome.

Check it out below.

Almost a week has passed since The Walking Dead season 3 reached its midseason finale. On that night, Twitter and Facebook were filled with posts of people asking what to do with their Sunday nights now that they are forced to wait until February for the show to return. Well, there’s no reason for fans of The Walking Dead to be stuck watching the previous seasons (or doing something really crazy like going outside) as Robert Kirkman and the rest of the team behind The Walking Dead have put out tons of other materials that both set up the story and characters of the show and/or went off in their own directions.

The Walking Dead Vol. 1 – 17

It’s where it all started. Over the course of 102 issues, The Walking Dead has taken readers through a rollercoaster of emotions. They have seen Rick and his ever changing band of survivors try to deal with a world that can never go back to what it once was.

While viewers of the show may witness some similar instances, they will also see how two different stories have been able to be told about the same essential concept. One of the things that keeps drawing readers back is the idea that really no one is safe and characters that they fall in love with end up becoming the biggest tragedies.

It’s always interesting to see how people react to art books. Some people can’t wait to get their hands on them as they anxiously await a game’s release while others like to look at them after the fact so the vistas and characters aren’t spoiled for them. I received The Art of Assassin’s Creed III almost on the same day that the review copy of the game came to me and I opted for the latter and saved the artwork until after I had experienced Assassin’s Creed III’s gameplay. After going through almost 30 hours in this lush world, it made me appreciate the concept work that went into making it come to life even more.

The Art of Assassin’s Creed III starts off with what one wouldn’t expect, the modern world. Since the interludes of Assassin’s Creed III take place in the modern era with Desmond at the helm, there is a quick exploration of the temple of the First Civilization that Desmond and his team make their base as well as the areas they must venture to recover the keys to power the temple. After that, everything heads back to the American Revolution.

You may be wondering why we would publish a story about a bookstore opening in New York. Well, that’s a fair question. The reasons are varied, but the most important ones are that this bookstore is selling Sci-Fi books exclusively, which we love, and, more importantly, is trying to save older, out of print books from disappearing forever.

We think that’s worth a mention.

According to an excellent article over at The Verge, the bookstore in question, located in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood and called Singularity & Co., opened its doors recently with the intention of bringing new and classic sci-fi novels to anyone who wants to read them.

What started as a Kickstarter campaign to find forgotten, out of print sci-fi books, digitize them, and sell them as e-books has grown into a full brick and mortar store. They still offer the eBooks, which you can subscribe to here, but now seek out rare and classic sci-fi books still in print to sell at the store.

In addition, founder Ash Kalb is also hoping to reprint some of the older, out of print books and pay actual royalties to the original writers. He’s working on the details right now and negotiating with publishers to get this going. We think that’s pretty cool too.

So, if you love Sci-Fi and love books, you should be clicking on the link and supporting this good cause. For more, check out the Singulairy & Co. video after the break.