ESCAPIST UPDATE - October 27th, 2007
UPDATE - October 27th, 2007

IJRP CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS - The first issue of The International Journal of Roleplaying will see publication in early 2008. From their site:

The aim of The International Journal of Role Playing is to act as a hybrid knowledge network, and bring together the varied interests in role-playing and the associated knowledge networks, e.g. academic research, the games and creative industries, the arts and the strong role-playing communities.

They have put out a call for submissions for the first issue, and the deadline is January 1st, 2008:

The International Journal of Role Playing invites researchers, designers, developers, academics, artists and others involved in the growing field of research related to role playing to submit articles. The IJRP is a peer-reviewed journal, and welcomes submissions from any sphere of interest, knowledge network, research field or development sector that directly or indirectly relates to role playing interests.Potential topics include but are certainly not limited to the following:

• Role playing games, e.g. frameworks, storytelling and graphics; art, design and creative industry
• Role playing culture, psychology, media, economics, and sociology
• Role playing technology, surveys, vocabulary, training and education
• Other aspects of role playing and related research and development

Find out more at: www.play.blogs.com/rp/

WORLDWIDE D&D DAY - The fourth annual Worldwide Dungeons & Dragons Game Day is fast approaching - November 3rd, 2007:

Now in its fourth year, World Wide D&D Game Day is set to break all records for sites and attendance internationally. Last year we saw over 1300 locations provide the setting for our trip to the horror realms of Ravenloft. Over 25,000 estimated heroes from as far a field as Singapore to Iraq, from Alaska to Buenos Aires threw down their dice in celebration of this D&D extravaganza!

Participating sites will have a prepared adventure, dice, characters, and miniatures just waiting for you. Check here for a participating location near you.

Or, if you can't find one, start your own! The official page features five ready-made characters in PDF format that you could quickly drop into an adventure of your own design, or some dusty old module that you've had for years but never got around to running. Call some pals, order some pizzas, and get some adventuring going on!

Find out more - www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/4dnd/gameday

JIMMY EAT WORLD OF GREYHAWK - How do members of Canadian rock band Jimmy Eat World have fun while traveling in their tour bus?

The band are currently on the road promoting their new Chase This Light album and, according to lead singer Jim Adkins, their idea of tour bus fun usually involves dice, boards or cards.

"We play Dungeons And Dragons a lot. What else do we do? Scrabble. We play a lot of Bridge."

"The craziest we did was spin the bottle," chimes in guitarist Tom Linton, launching the pair into a fit of giggles.

Read more at Chartattack.

GLEEMIN' TO THE MAX - Wizards of the Coast's new gamer networking site, Gleemax, is open and somewhat functional. There are still many improvements to be made, but if you're the patient sort, you can sign up right now and start posting and blogging away - www.gleemax.com. If you like, you can read my profile and blog posts right here.

THE FREAKS COME OUT AT NIGHT - Joe Torok of Lansing, MI's City Pulse has contributed a great little piece on joining a Vampire LARP group as a complete newbie:

I myself had a more difficult time embracing my inner geek; self-consciousness nagged. But despite some hesitation in realizing my character, I felt welcome in the game. When all else failed, I held out my hand with fingers crossed, a sign that I was temporarily removing myself from the game and going out of character — after all, vampires have no bodily functions aside from the desire to feed.

Read the whole article, and even get details on joining Lansing's Vampire troupe, here: article | archive