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

It’s time for another edition of What We’re Playing. This week it’s a video game you might have heard of called Minecraft. Does that ring a bell?

We’re joking, of course. Everyone’s heard of Minecraft, right? It’s only one of the most popular and successful video games of all time with 126 million players around the world. Yep, that Minecraft. 

Since some of us here at The Flickcast have kids, we’ve been trying to find ways to entertain them and distract from the monotony of quarantine. Fortunately, during the last year or so, we’ve discovered Minecraft . . . and, of course, we love it! Kids and adults alike!

If for some reason you’re not familiar with Minecraft, here’s a bit of info about the game from the Official Minecraft Wiki:

“Minecraft is a sandbox construction game created by Mojang Studios founder Markus “Notch” Persson, inspired by Infiniminer, Dwarf Fortress, Dungeon Keeper, and Notch’s past games Legend of the Chambered and RubyDung. Gameplay involves players interacting with the game world by placing and breaking various types of blocks in a three-dimensional environment. In this environment, players can build creative structures, creations, and artwork on multiplayer servers and singleplayer worlds across multiple game modes.”

We mostly play in “Creative” mode where you build amazing structures and contraptions out of various blocks in the game. However, if you’re looking for more of a challenge, switch to “Survival” mode where you’re forced to find or grow food, build shelters and fight off hordes of monsters including spiders, skeletons and zombies. Whatever you choose, it’s all fun . . . and you just might learn something too. 

That’s right, it’s time for another edition of Weekly Link Love. As we’ve done before, this is where we highlight websites, blogs, videos or other things we think you should know about.

This time around we’re highlighting a few of the great YouTube content creators we watch and enjoy on the regular. These talented folks work tirelessly to bring us informative, entertaining and fun video content and we think it’s time they got the love they deserve.

You may have heard of none, some or all of these creators, but whatever the case, we think they warrant a spot in the Weekly Link Love. As always, don’t forget to spread the love. Comment, like and subscribe. But remember, be kind.

Now, on to the links!

Critical Role – The one that started, and continues to lead, the D&D streaming explosion. Great adventures and an amazing cast of characters. Is it Thursday yet?

Dylan Laine – Want to learn piano, guitar or ukulele, Dylan is the one to watch.

Grainy Days – Photographer Jason Kummerfeldt takes you through his process, photos and inspirations in a fun, funny and informative way. And his photos are pretty great too. Oh, and Baxter is awesome. In fact, just check out the channel for Baxter. You won’t be sorry. 

iJustine – She’s been in the tech game for quite some time but, if you want to know anything about anything tech, Justine has got you covered. Smart, funny, talented and knowledgeable. A winning combination the entertains and informs.

James Hoffman – If you want to know anything about making the best cup of coffee you possibly can, James is your man. If he doesn’t know, nobody does.

Lindsey Ellis – Some of the best and most insightful film and television commentary and analysis you’ll find on YouTube. Do you want to understand how and why movies and TV shows work, or don’t work? Watch Lindsey.

Matt Day – One of the best photography channels on YouTube. Matt is an amazing photographer and a great dude. If you love photography, film or digital, check him out for sure. 

New Rockstars – Led by Eric Voss, this channel is one of our favorites for crazy movie and television commentary, deep dives and theories. Eric knows his stuff and finds the hidden meanings, signs, Easter eggs and clues where others can’t.

WASD20 – A hub for D&D and tabletop role-players and map makers. This channel is another of our favorites.

Whiskey and Waffles – We’re probably a little biased here. Ok, more than a little. Still, this is a great channel with some fun content. We especially love that D&D Twitch stream 

Wyrmwood – These guys make some of the best D&D tables and accessories in the world. Their channel, Wyrm Lyfe, is damn funny and full of interesting (and a few crazy) characters. We never miss an episode.  

That’s it for this week. Let us know if you find an interesting link you’d like to share.

Until then, don’t forget to spread the love!

Being at home during a pandemic forced us to find new ways to entertain ourselves. One of the ways that’s worked best for us is playing games online. So, in that spirit, we’re kicking off a new series at The Flickcast called What We’re Playing. 

Each week we’ll highlight a game we’re playing at home. For the first installment of What We’re Playing, we turn to an old favorite: Dungeons & Dragons. 

D&D was created by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and first published in 1974. Since then its popularity grew considerably. Even with a slump in the late 80s and early 90s, D&D is still played by millions of people around the world. That popularity has exploded even more during the last year or two. You can probably guess why.

If you’re not familiar, or have never played, you may wonder “What’s D&D?” For that we turn to Wizards of the Coast, the company who publishes the game. From their official D&D website:

“The core of D&D is storytelling. You and your friends tell a story together, guiding your heroes through quests for treasure, battles with deadly foes, daring rescues, courtly intrigue, and much more.”

Sounds fun, right? Traditionally, D&D is played by a group of friends sitting together at a table. One person is the Dungeon Master, or DM. This person creates and runs the game, spins tales of adventure, plays all non-player characters (or NPCs) and generally is the go-to for all rules and what happens during the campaign.

The players (not the DM) create characters of their own and rollplay them during the game. You can choose from a variety of character occupations including fighter, ranger, rogue or wizard and races such as human, elf, dwarf or halfling. Then, once characters are created, players explore dungeons or ancient ruins, interact with NPCs and creatures like Orcs or Giants and even, yes, fight an actual dragon.

That’s how it’s usually done . . with everyone together around a table. But what if getting together isn’t possible?

We thought it would be great to link to other blogs, websites, podcasts, videos and stories that caught our fanc,y or we think deserved to get noticed, during the week. So, to further that, and spread a little love around, we’re bringing back the Weekly Link Love.

No, it’s not an original idea. Lots of people do it. And we’ve done it before too. Granted, it’s been a minute. But that doesn’t matter.

We think it’s important to bring it back and uplift others, especially these days. So, welcome back the Weekly Link Love.

Since we produce a podcast, it made sense to start with some of the ones we listen to on the regular and enjoy. Find the links below. Spread the love. 

The Beerists – For the love of craft beer. Podcast produced in Austin, TX. 

Dragon Talk – The official Dungeons & Dragons podcast.

The Erasable Podcast – The No. 2 pencil podcast about, you guessed it, pencils. 

HomeWork – The podcast by and for people working at home. 

Inside of You – Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville’s Lex Luthor) interviews great guests.

The KingCast – A Stephen King podcast for Stephen King obsessives.

The Pen Addict – We love pens and pencils, so this podcast is a favorite.

Random Trek – Scott McNulty discusses a random episode of a Star Trek series with a non-random guest.

Scriptnotes – Screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters, with John August & Craig Mazen. 

Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast – A tech podcast for the gadget lovers and tech heads with Marques Brownlee.

WTF? – Marc Maron interviews everyone and gives his personal views on issues of the day. 

That’s it for this week. Let us know if you find an interesting link you’d like to share. Until then, don’t forget to spread the love.

As you’ve seen there’s been a bunch of new episodes of The Flickcast over the last few months. We’re thrilled to bring the podcast back to you and we look forward to doing it for a long time to come. 

But what about this website? Well, good news (we think, at least) the site is coming back too. That’s right, look for more content dropping here shortly. We’re getting things ready behind-the-scenes, but hope to have some stuff ready to go for you soon. 

We’re talking, of course, about articles, reviews, tutorials, news, videos and more. All the stuff you used to come here for. Going forward, our coverage will be a bit different than what we did before, though.

We’ll keep talking about movies, television and all that good stuff, but we’re also going to expand into other areas of pop culture like books, music, streaming, technology, tabletop RPGs and much more.

Pretty much anything nerds are playing, watching and enjoying these days will be fair game. It’s gonna be fun. We hope you’ll join us and enjoy!

Until then, look for a brand new episode of The Flickcast every Monday at 9AM Central Time. Thanks and we’ll see you soon.

Image: Wizards of the Coast / Hasbro

That’s right, it’s a new year and another new episode of The Flickcast. Let’s keep it rolling!

Even though we’ve dropped a few episodes this year already, we never really got a chance to say “Happy New Year” yet (or did we?). So anyway, here it is . . . and what a new year it’s turned out to be. Things are definitely looking up!

On this week’s show Chris and Joe go deep into the new Marvel/Disney+ show WandaVision and discuss their personal theories about the characters, what’s happening on the show and what’s with those weird commercials. They also talk about Sam Esmail’s upcoming version of Battlestar Galactica, more on The Expanse (which is having an amazing season), why other shows like Supernatural and Stargate had such long runs, upcoming movie and TV versions of Dungeons & Dragons and what the hell happened with Game of Thrones. 

Picks are also back this week with Joe choosing the show Letterkenny, which is now on Hulu, and Chris picking the Judd Apatow 2020 film The King of Staten Island with Pete Davidson, Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr and Bel Powley. 

It’s another big show. Let’s keep 2021 going in the right direction. Thanks for listening!

WARNING: This episode may contain discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Photo: Disney / Marvel

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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Happy New Year to one and all! Yes, you can still say that even if it’s already January 11th. A new year and a brand new episode of The Flickcast to start things off right.

Hell, we all need some good things in the world right now, right? So, we’ll do what we can to bring one to you. To start off this first episode of 2021 Chris and Joe get back into it and talk about some old stuff and some new stuff. Some of the old and new stuff includes discussions about the recent Warner Bros./HBO Max deal, Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, Wonder Woman 1984, Justice League, the state of the world and what they’re looking forward to in 2021.

They also talk a bit about what things helped get them through 2020 including 3D printing, Enola Holmes, The Queen’s Gambit and one of Chris’ new favorite shows Ted Lasso. And yes, there’s the usual and ever-present more.

It’s a big show. What better way to kick off a new year? Thanks for listening!

WARNING: This episode may contain discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Photo: Warner Bros./DC

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of The Flickcast. A pop culture podcast about stuff nerds love. On this week’s show Joe is, unfortunately, away so Chris is joined (once again) by Rick Marshall of Digital Trends to talk about all sorts of amazing things.

Some of these amazing things include the recent HBOMax/Warner Bros announcement, some favorites from all the latest Marvel, Disney and Star Wars news and what they’re looking forward to in 2021. And yes, they also discuss how 2020 wasn’t all bad.

How do they explain “2020 wasn’t all bad”? Well, by highlighting some of the many great movies, tv shows and more that came out during this very difficult year. Hey it’s something, right? It wasn’t all bad, just mostly bad. 

It’s a big show with lots going on. Thanks for listening and Happy Holidays!

WARNING: This episode may contain discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Photo: Harlan Jacobson for WBGO News

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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Yes, Christmas is just around the corner. Not only do you get a brand new episode of The Flickcast this week but next week it’s Christmas and you get a visit from Santa, assuming you’re on the “good” list and not the “naughty” one. No judgements either way, though. You do you.

On this week’s show Chris and Joe are joined by guest Dave Caolo of the Home Work podcast and Table Top Hero to talk about working at home, ways to ensure mindfulness during these stressful times, Dungeons & Dragons and a whole bunch of other cool stuff. And yes, they also manage to talk about the recent Warner Bros./HBO Max announcement and some of the recent Star Wars and Marvel announcements and what they might all mean. 

The trio also offer a few last minute gift ideas for those of you who’ve waited to get that special someone in your life, well, something special. You know who you are. 

It was a lot of stuff to cover. In fact, they really didn’t have time get into all of it so on next week’s show Chris and Joe will go deeper into all the announcements, what next year in entertainment and pop culture might look like and some of their favorite things from 2020. Yes, 2020 wasn’t all bad. Look for that episode soon.

In the meantime, though, sit back and relax and enjoy this week’s episode of The Flickcast. It’s a good one.

Thanks for listening.

WARNING: This episode may contain discussions about COVID-19, mental health and quarantine. We understand not everyone is in a place to talk about or hear discussions surrounding these issues. Please do what’s best for you. Stay safe everyone.

As always, if you have comments, questions, critiques, offers of sponsorship or whatever, feel free to hit us up in the comments, on Twitter, Instagram or, yes, even Facebook. Or shoot us an email. We don’t mind.

Photo: Netflix

Opening and end music by Kevin MacLeod under Creative Commons License

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