games and other time-wasters

i spend a fair amount of my time playing RPGs, usually in the d20 system. i've been playing since i was a little kid, through first, second, and third edition. d20/3rd ed is definitely my favorite so far, and my local gaming group has taken the opportunity to play several different systems in that line:

d&d third edition is, of course, the baseline; the group i was with played a 1.5 year long campaign through seventh level. i've been impressed with the simplicity of the system; the days of tables are mostly gone, i like how the new combat system is focused on using minitures, and the whole system plays pretty well. the learning curve might be a little steep for new gamers, but not too bad.
when that d&d run ended, we were discussing starting up a dragonstar campaign; picture d&d in outer space with space travel, blasters, power armor, robots with human souls, and jedi wielding lightsabers (a house rule). oh - and, dragons rule the galaxy. i'm interested to see how the blaster damage/armor balance works out, and how much of a disadvantage standard characters have in this environment.
i ran a short-run spycraft campaign for a little while. very james bond-esque role-playing; high-tech espionage, lots of extraordinary feats expected from the agents. couple of problems with the system: the highly-touted chase system is kind of unwieldy, there are tons of feats, and the class books assume that you're also following shadowforce archer, their evolving campaign setting. unfortunately, it also adds psionics and a bunch of other shit that i'm just not interested in playing with. the expansion books all have extra stuff in them - like new base classes that are referred to by other books! the system itself is fun though - i might suggest sticking to the basic system with no expansions.
oh, and don't forget the contribution that wotc is making to society: the d20 system reference document is available online in RTF format. in other words, they've basically published the important parts of the player's handbook and monster manual in downloadable form. note that they haven't finished porting this stuff over to 3.5 yet, at least i think.

a little while ago i came across some stuff that got me interested in old game emulation, specifically on the apple ii. this led me to an apple iigs emulator, and a return to one of the best and most classic computer RPGs ever published: the bard's tale. i finished BT1 (finally - it only took me fifteen years!) and started in on BT2 with the same group of characters before losing interest.

there's lots of hint and cheat information out there on the net. the site i use most often is the bard's tale compendium. walkthroughs for each of the three games, spell lists, information on equipment. good stuff.
rumors of bard's tale IV have been flying around forever; all the fan sites have interviews and reports and all kinds of information, but there's a team that's actually done it: devil whiskey. they've released their demo version, but i haven't tried playing it yet. all signs point in the positive direction for now though. note that this isn't actually BT4, but it's as near as you're going to get.

moving away from the computer realm and into the cute-plastic-parts genre, you're doing yourself a disservice if you've never heard of looney labs. they're a great little hippie game company that makes some really fun card and board games, not to mention a set of plastic pieces called icehouse that can be used like a deck of cards. check them out.

looney labs' home page has info about the company, links to their many and varied games, and an online store you can browse.
once you've acquired a set of icehouse pieces, go check out the huge online repository of games that can be played with them: S.L.I.C.K.

and, of course, what would a time-wasting page be without a couple of links to online java webgame sites?

careful with this one, it's incredibly addictive. ever heard of nonograms, or paint-by-numbers puzzles? there's a whole big online site full of 'em:

pbn.homelinux.com