Infinite Lives

I realize it must seem as though I sent Infinite Lives to the cornfields during GDC, but in reality, I have been planning my BIG MOVE to Chicago! Ahhhh: It seems like only yesterday I was complaining about Chicago, and then moving out of it. (Well, and also, planning a bridal shower, doing some web-work, doing gory makeup for a film shoot, and having the flu—there’s no telling when Infinite Lives will normalize again, frankly.)

I haven’t entirely abandoned the site, of course! In fact, in the interest of supporting it, I have been toying with a banner ad slash affiliate program called Project Wonderful. And while Project Wonderful doesn’t generate enough revenue for me to wholeheartedly recommend it, I do think it’s cool that I (yes! Me!) am able to basically pick and choose whose ads cycle through the little square on the right.

And I can’t wait to run this one ad for D20 necklaces.

Apparently, she has twenty-sided dice available in most every color of the rainbow, to be strung onto silver-plated ball chains, satin cords, or keyrings. And don’t get me started on the 42 earrings.

• Etsy – Paw & Claw Designs

In keeping with this blog’s current trending toward pictureless confessionals and ridiculous ruminations on avatars, here’s more of the same.

I wasn’t allowed to play RPGs as a kid.

More specifically, I wasn’t permitted to play computer games in which you could create or alter your own character. Sometime, maybe a year and a half ago, I mentioned this fact on a podcast which, along with my semi-lyrical overuse of the word “totally,” seemed to arouse some bafflement and curiosity. “Why wouldn’t her mom let her play role-playing games?” some folks wanted to know. I hadn’t elaborated—I’d only mentioned it offhandedly—and perhaps that caused some people to be discouraged.

Of course, I was surprised by their surprise. Do these people not know, I wondered, that playing fantasy games will turn you into a warlock and your bedroom closet into a portal to hell?

I obviously have some lingering issues.

The power of urban myth

I was born in 1982, and I spent almost all of my childhood in a small, conservative town in Texas, during what I’ve now heard called the “Satanic Panic.”

The late 70s and early 80s are banner years for contemporary legend anthropologists. Urban myths—the likes that get a foothold among small-town Christian fundamentalist communities—were running amok. In 1977, Ray Kroc of McDonald’s allegedly copped to being a member of the Church of Satan. Fact. And in the early 1980s, it was common knowledge that Cabbage Patch Dolls themselves were possessed by demons. Duh.

One variation on the Cabbage Patch legend held that Xavier Roberts signed the buttocks of his doll-progeny to signify that he had blessed each one in the name of Satan. These bits of trivia were pronounced at the tables of our elementary school lunchroom as cold, hard evidence that evil dolls could, in fact, murder you in your sleep, if they wanted to.

Last month I pointed you toward the D20 Gaming Dice Set, a 99-cent iPhone application—its developer followed the first release with a US$2.99 “PRO” release, which allows for the rolling of multiple sets of dice at a time.

Since that distant time, though, a bevy of dice rolling applications have been added to the esteemed ranks of the iPhone’s App Store. There’s the DieRoller app, which costs a meager 99 US cents. Its developer, Derek Jones, writes:

Non-gamer tip: use 5d6 to play Yahtzee, or use the Percentile roll to make up statistics!

Tempting!

There’s also the simpler DiceDaemon (99 cents), the comparatively pricy Dicenomicon ($3.99; pictured at left), and of course, Dice Bag (free).

Earlier:  Ready for a game of D&D at the drop of a hat

Last night I was sifting through the iPhone’s app store (again), and I noticed a 99-cent application called the D20 Gaming Dice Set.

Seriously?

I tapped at my iPhone, which brought me to a download screen. I don’t really play tabletop games but, sure enough, the D20 Gaming Dice Set is exactly as I’d hoped:

D20 Gaming Dice Set provides a set of dice compatible with most dice based games. The application provides 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, and 100 sided dice. It will let you roll between 1 and 9 dice at a time.

I love this idea. You’re sitting around a table with friends, and then you suddenly blurt, “Oh, I know what we should do!” And you bring your iPhone out and pass it around, and your iPhone really is a Swiss army knife of technology. And everyone is so impressed with your phone, and therefore, by proxy, with you! And the game is going wonderfully; truly, you are the life of the party!

But then your battery dies before the game’s end, and everyone looks at you a little bit accusatorily. You shrink in your seat, wondering why you don’t simply travel with a spare die. And I pat you on the back and I tell you it all reminds me of that time in NYC when I mocked my friend Dave for using an enormous travel guide with fold-out maps, but then my iPhone’s battery died and I was suddenly useless. In junior high, I once flunked a survival mission—it was “map orientation,” the real-world application of a compass in the wilderness—and even with a map, even today, I am perpetually lost.

Seven types of die? Nine of each type of die? I’m no mathematician, but that’s 63 dice! The D20 Gaming Dice Set is, if nothing else, a moneysaver.

• Direct iTunes link – D20 Gaming Dice Set
• The Michael Litman Experience – D20 Gaming Dice Set goes live on App Store