Saturday Spotlight: Star Trek: Timelines

Remember a while back when I said I wanted to learn some stuff about RPGs?  And then remember when I didn't?  So my friend Autumn suggested that I find some online but I messed up somehow.  I did find an app called Star Trek: Timelines which I guess I mistook for that but when I figured out what it was it still looked fun, so I got it.  It's free to download and free to play but I guess it's way less frustrating if you buy Dilithuim.  That stuff apparently makes it way better, but since I'm really inexperienced I just don't know how much fun I COULD be having, so it's fine free for me.  I spend kind of a lot of time playing it and my kids actually love it too.  They used to become heartbroken when I'd try to sneak off and play without them.  They each have an old iPhone that doesn't have any service, so when I got tired of hearing them over my shoulder yelling, "play Picard, Mama!" for every mission, I put it on The Villain's phone so they could play it on there.  The Bookworm's phone was too old, so if you have a really old iPhone look out for that.  Mine's an Android so no problems there.

The Villain playing Staw Fwack on his own stinkin' phone!

The thing that's fun about it is that it mixes the timelines all up together and you could have a crew including Kirk, Picard and Sisko together.  Of course, that wouldn't be the most effective combination of skills for most missions but you could totally do it.  The frustrating part is that I'm completely new to the whole gaming universe so I don't know what anything means or how to figure out the things that I need to know to advance and all of the advice and tips online are super general about how to get started and what all the different features of the game ARE and not how to use them in the most effective ways.  Like, you'll find articles and videos that tell you how to earn and use training for your guys, but not why the yellow number won't just DISAPPEAR ALREADY! when you're done training or why you can't train anymore after a certain point.  That kind of thing.  I eventually figure things out but if I could just ask someone it would be more fun for me.  There is a message board but it's too quick for me and mostly social.  I don't dig it.  Gone and got too old, I guess. 

Oh, well.  It's still really super fun.  I love it and I recommend you try it, too.  I heard that company, Disruptor Beam, actually started with a similar game for Game of Thrones and I'm really excited to try that one.  Wish me luck!  And follow Star Trek: Timelines on Twitter for more news and stuff.  And OH MY GOSH, HOW COULD I FORGET?!?! It's voiced by John deLancie, who played Q on TNG!!!

CoastCon '16

Last weekend I went to CoastCon, just like I said I would.  I had a blast and I intended to learn a few things about gaming but it didn't really work out for me.  The first two days I was by myself and I didn't see ANYONE there that I knew, much less anyone who could show me anything about gaming.  On Sunday I planned on going to a panel called How To Learn RPGs When You're Alone With Nobody to Show You (pretty sure that's it...) but it happened to be right at noon and that was the day I brought The Bookworm with me and he needed some $4 million lunch to pick at and ultimately throw away.  My kids are rarely allowed soda, so he was definitely too preoccupied to eat.

This is my only clear picture from Sunday for some reason

I brought The Bookworm on Sunday to meet Steve Blum and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn because he's obsessed with Digimon and they do voices for the cartoon and the video game. To help him understand what that even means, I made him watch I Know That Voice, which is a documentary about voice actors that I'd seen a few months ago on Netflix.  He wasn't pleased to have to sit still watching some people do voices, or to have the magic kind of explained away, but it helped in the long run because when we got there and he saw the pictures of Guilmon and I told him the Guilmon guy was THERE... he knew enough to be excited.  

When we walked up to the table, Steve Blum could obviously guess which show this little kid was a fan of.  I say which show because he's a busy, busy guy. He's got 612 credits on IMDB for shows like Star Wars: Rebels, Cowboy Bebop, Regular Show and a zillion incarnations of Batman and X-Men.  PLUS he is in the Guiness Book of World Records for doing more video game voices than anyone else.  He's done God of War, World of Warcraft, Diablo, Call of Duty... know what? Just look it up.  Here's the link.

Anyway, we walk up to the guy and he instantly goes into the voice and my kid grins like a maniac and does that insanely cute little-kid giggle.  It was the greatest!  He signed our video game (my kids and my husband play video games most of the time, so I feel like I can probably hear this dude's voice in my house at any given moment) and he was so charmed by The Bookworm that he very generously signed a couple of extra things for us.

See? Blurry.

In the course of our conversation, my little guy casually dropped the name of another Digimon he likes and the lady sitting next to Steve Blum perked up and cried, "Hey! That's me!" It was Mary Elizabeth McGlynn and she did the voice for him with a big smile.  "Whatever-mon digivolve to... Something-Woman!" Clearly, I have a mind like steel trap. 

So, she does the voice, right?  And my kid FREAKS THE FRICK OUT!!! It was like all those people in the black & white footage fainting when Paul McCartney tipped his hat to them or whatever.  I couldn't even deal.  Best day ever.  Just reliving it makes me exhausted, so I'll end here and leave you with some photos I took from the rest of the Con.  Enjoy, and leave your own stories in the comments section about the time you met your favorite celebrity.