Index
[ Gaming | Music| Guitar Instructor| Cool Books | Christian ]
Gaming
- Christian Gamers Guild - "The CGG (Christian Gamers Guild) is a group of committed Christians who enjoy games of all kinds. It was begun in December 1996, by James W. Aubuchon, who posted a notice on rec.games.frp.announcements asking if any Christians were interested in forming a group to discuss role-playing. The group began as an informal e-mail list of each persons e-mail address that the members posted to."
- Confessions of a Dungeons & Dragons(tm) Addict - A good page by a very intelligent Christian that plays Dungeons & Dragons. MJ Young has designed his own RPG and is also the chaplain of the CGG.
- CAR-PGa - This is an unofficial page for the CAR-PGa. The Committee for the Advancement of Role-Playing Games is an organization based in Texas that works towards the common good of RPGs and the people who play them.
- D&D - Dungeons and Dragons, the original fantasy roleplaying game and still my personal favorite, was created by Gary Gygax. His old company, TSR, was bought by Wizards of the Coast, the makers of the collectible card game, Magic the Gathering. Now it appears that Hasbro owns Wizards of the Coast. How very strange things have become...
- GURPS - Generic Universal Roleplaying System by Steve Jackson Games. An extremely flexible system that allows you to roleplay in any setting, time or genre.
- Elendor MUSH - A cool mush with a Tolkien theme. I formerly played a character named GaelAluin, a Sindarin elf from the woods of Lorien.
- John Kochmar's FRUA Home Page - This is a home page for Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures. If you have a new module that you would like for others to be able to play or if you would like to find resources for this game try this link.
- Illuminati New World Order - A satirical game of conspiracy for the whole family! Okay, I guess saying this is for the whole family is a bit of a stretch. This is a revamping of the original boxed game by Steve Jackson that is updated with all the latest conspiracy theories and personalities. It has been reintroduced in the collectible card game format that Magic the Gathering popularized.
- Toon - The Cartoon Roleplaying Game by Steve Jackson Games. Tired of roleplaying in dreadfully serious fantasy or dark future games? Try your hand at playing a cartoon character. The most important game in the history of roleplaying!
- Religion and Roleplaying
- This particular site might be a little troubling
to some folks since the author, James Wyatt, describes himself as being "about as far to the liberal end of the theological spectrum as you'll find among those who still do identify themselves as Christian." Although I would not characterize myself as a theological liberal there is still much good thinking going on here. There is also a section which may cause some confusion as to the religious affiliation of an excellent fantasy author named Tracy Hickman. Hickman is a Mormon, "He describes himself as Christian, however, and I make a policy of not second-guessing anyone's self-identification." Wyatt is a former United Methodist minister and now works for Wizards of the Coast.
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Index
Cool Books
- Song of Albion Trilogy
- The God Who is There
- He is There and He is Not Silent
- Riverworld seriesBack to the Index
Music
- Soul-Junk - My personal take on this band is that they are a freakish blend of indie and hip-hop but this description is really a little too simple. One reviewer has had this to say about Soul Junk. "I don't know if you kids were ever paying much attention to that screaming, often blasphemous box called a television set when you were younger, but I would like to call to attention a certain show that I remember from years ago named 'Sanford & Son'. Now I would like you to take that show, put it in an elevator with a hip-hop artist, a roots rocker type fellow, an evangelist and an experimental mad scientist, and then I want you to cut the elevator cables."
- Radiohead - An incredible band from Oxford, England. 'On A Friday' was the original name of this group that we all now know and love as Radiohead.
- Sixpence None The Richer - A very cool band, in spite of what you may think, given the particular tunes that top 40 alternative stations have actually played. I am a composer and it is my learned opinion that the principal song writer, Matt Slocum, has written many more interesting tunes then you would be led to believe if you have only heard the Kiss Me track. Learn to think for yourselves and stop following the herd by checking out two of my favorite tunes; Bleeding(from This Beautiful Mess) and Meaningless(from The Fatherless and the Widow). The following link will take to you to amazon.com where you can check out a segment of the song Bleeding from the above mentioned album...
- Over-The-Rhine - A band I first heard at the Cornerstone music festival. They have also done a number of gigs with Cowboy Junkies which I have not had the pleasure to hear in person. The sound is extremely mellow, sultry and laid back roots rock these days.
- The Crossing - A JPUSA band that performs Celtic music. As far as I know I have every album that they have released thus far. If you dig jigs and reels then you really owe it to yourself to check out these guys.
- The 77's - Yet another band that I really dig. See what Mike Roe has been up to lately.
- UNT Music - One of the largest and most competitive Music schools in the nation. This is where I earned my degree in music composition.
- Midi Guitar Page - A resource for Midi Guitarists. There is also a listserver that you can join for this page. It appears that most of the subscribers use Roland and Axon products.
- Maximum Midi Programmer's Toolkit - Learn to write applications for your midi interface in C. This site used to offer a free visual basic toolkit and it does appear that it still offers free demos in C including a sysex librarian that saves to .syx format.
- Harmony Central - The single best resource on the web for info about new gear. If you are looking for a new synth, vintage stompboxes or trying to locate the webpage of a particular instrument manufacturer you should be able to find it here.
- The Official Cornerstone Festival Site - The enormous Christian music festival brought to you by JPUSA. Go to the hard core tent and listen to punk, to the coffee house to hear jigs and reels or hang out in the seminar tents with the Passantinos, Charlie Peacock or Norman Geisler.
- True Tunes - Looking for those more obscure bands in the Christian music scene? Perhaps you're having a hard time finding Pedro the Lion's "Winners Never Quit" or Urban Hillbilly Quartet's "Beautiful Lazy," if so, I'm willing to bet that you can find it here.
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Christian
- Jesus People USA - If you are turned off by Christians that are culturally conservative in all the wrong ways then you need to check out this place.
- Cornerstone magazine - A rag published by the folks at JPUSA that has no fear of the controversial. This is the same magazine which originally exposed the farce that was Mike Warnke and other frauds like Lauren Stratford. Complete with music and book reviews, music interviews, poetry, frank articles about sex and other social/theological issues that many mainstream churches fear to deal with openly. Glenn Kaiser, Jon Trott, Eric Pement and many others are regular writers for this mag.
- The Official Cornerstone Festival Site - The enormous Christian music festival brought to you by JPUSA. Go to the hard core tent and listen to punk, to the coffee house to hear jigs and reels or hang out in the seminar tents with the Passantinos, Charlie Peacock or Norman Geisler.
- C.S. Lewis and the Inklings - Info about authors such as Lewis and Tolkien.
- Regenerator - An interesting rag with articles from Reformed, Episcopal, Eastern Orthodox and Catholic perspectives. The wise man would pay special attention to the film reviews by J. A. Hanson.
- Answers in Action - Cult info and some cultural criticism by Bob and Gretchen Passantino, two of the wittiest and most intelligent cult apologists that you will ever meet. There is also a growing web board discussion that appears to be basically uncensored thus far. You can even flame folks on this one with the only apparent repercussions being having your posts moved to the flame fest section of the board.
- Christian Research Institute Archive - The group that was associated with the late Walter Martin, the respected cult apologist, has set up an archive.
- Christian Reconstructionism, Dominion Theology, And Theonomy
- A page that takes aim at the kookiest theology that I have yet to find in the church. I would consider authors that peddle this thinking as purveyors of malarkey of the highest order. This stuff sent my crapometer scudding completely off the dial. Among other things theonomic reconstructionists would like to see the US converted into something of a theocracy. Even the arch conservative Ralph Reed has spoken out negatively about these folks. This is a page by the OCRT and as the about us section notes they are a group consisting of 4 volunteers,"two Unitarian Universalists (one Agnostic and one Atheist), one Wiccan and one liberal but unaffiliated Christian."