Meet Edison Thomas. He loves science, he invents gadgets, and his favorite band is They Might Be Giants. He also has Asperger’s Syndrome. Edison Thomas is the protagonist of Jacqueline Houtman’s book The Reinvention of Edison Thomas. Eddy, as he is known to his friends and family, has many similar difficulties as most kids with Asperger’s. He has a high sensitivity to noise, he has difficulty reading the emotions of people around him and he spends an large amount of his time on one subject. That subject being science and inventing. Eddy, much like his namesake, is constantly inventing things and correcting people’s scientific facts. He even says he likes They Might Be Giants because the science in their songs is accurate.

The author, Jacqueline Houtman, has a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology and lets her love of science shine through Eddy. She does a great job getting across the challenges kids like Eddy have in the average classroom setting. Eddy’s relationship with his classmates is strained at best until he meets another student who is also on the fringe of the middle school society. Justin is also a science geek who is very impressed with Eddy’s science skills and does not dwell on the social awkwardness.

During the course of the story Eddy is faced with a few dilemmas. Someone is pranking him, and trying to set him up for trouble. If that wasn’t enough, Eddy found out the crossing guard he sees every morning is being laid off. The loss of the crossing guard begins to worry Eddy that the corner is no longer safe for the younger kids crossing the street. Eddy tries to face these challenges on his own, but when science is not enough his newfound friends are there to help support him.

Overall the book is a good read for tweens and young teens. I think it is a very good book for siblings of kids on the spectrum because it gives some insight into the issues facing kids on the spectrum and also shows that with a little understanding you may find an interesting friend who would be happy to share their world with you. In the vein of the Joey Pigza series, The Reinvention of Edison Thomas attempts to highlight kids with special needs and show that heroes come in all shapes, sizes and issues and if you give them a chance they can do amazing things.

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

In Texas they’re called tarragon, in South America they’re turned into perfume, and in England you put them on to wash dishes. What is the more common name for these flowers?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search [White House] in Google Maps and find Scott Circle directly north on 16th Street. Search [Scott Circle] to find that it is named after Brevet Lt. General Winfield Scott. Search [Winfield Scott presidential election] to find that Scott lost the 1852 election to Franklin Pierce.

I’m awfully excited about the Dark Ascension card we’ve been given to preview. It’s powerful and sinister, a game-changer that can put the fear of destruction in your opponent toward the end of the game — the monster is actually cheaper to cast the more creatures populate your graveyard. Woah.

Most Magic: The Gathering settings feature some sinister storylines, but this one seems darker than most:

The plane of Innistrad has fallen into a deep night. The horrible beings that fill the world have risen to power as the careful balance and tenuous power of Humans has failed in the absence of Avacyn. As the monsters overrun humanity’s defenses, despair reigns and all hope seems lost.

Heavy, eh? Now click through for our preview card!

Any despair you might be feeling at the Dark Ascension storyline is unlikely to be balmed by this awesome card:

So devastating! If you pull this card out during the endgame, it could conceivably cost a mere 1 Green mana for a 10/10 critter!

I’m really looking forward to all the darkness and desperation of Dark Ascension. It’s a setting with a lot of potential for great monsters and spells. Learn more on magicthegathering.com and look for the new sets in stores on February 3rd.

Module by TSR, Scanned From My Copy

We were digging through the storage shed to find just the right box of Christmas decorations, when I should chance across the dusty stack of old Dungeons & Dragons modules I’ve had with me for… well, for a very long time. For all the GeekDads who have gamed, as I scan and read through these, I’ll post them for your enjoyment and comment, if you remember them.

Okay, nothing basic about this one, people. C2 – The Ghost Tower of Inverness very specifically states it “has been designed for experienced players, and the mistake of equating experienced characters with experienced players should be avoided.” In other words, if you’re going to play it, make sure you’re not surrounded by newbies who don’t know the difference between a saving throw and how to calculate critical hit damage for a flail. I mean, come on, ya know?

Seriously, though, C2 is another one of those modules adapted from a campaign written for a gaming con, so you know it’s hard core, and likely to have the kind of attention to sadistic detail only us geeks can love.

Know you that in the elder days before the Invoked Devastation and the Rain of Colorless Fire, when the ancient peaks of the Abbor-Alz still thrust skyward sharp at majestic, there existed between the Bright Desert and the mount of the river Selintan a great fortress called Inverness. Know you also that here was said to dwell the great wizard Galap-Dreidel at the height of his power and glory. Most grand and terrible of all Galap-Dreidel’s work was the keep’s great inner tower; for it was there that the wizard’s most prized possession, an eldritch jewel known only as the Soul-Gem was said to rest. Legend says it was like a great white diamond and that it glowed with the brilliance of the sun. Stories said that the light of the gem dragged the souls of men screaming from their mortal flesh and trapped them within. Galap-Dreidel, it was said, harnessed this power and used it against those that opposed his will. They also say that he who controlled the gem could call forth the stolen souls of men and make them do his bidding.

Long story/short? Your party is hired/coerced by the Lord of the land to go seek out the tower and see about obtaining the gem for his use in his benign despotism. Anything for a bit of fun, right? Just consider that the module recommends a party of 5-10 characters of level 5-7. That’s some serious firepower, there – meaning that casualties should be expected. This one is full of monsters, and full of interesting tricks and traps that will take their toll on even the most experienced group.

Things to remember in the Ghost Tower of Inverness:

• Walking across the Chess Room can be like shuffling your feet across a heavy shag rug and touching a metal railing: shocking! Having Ron Weasley, or anyone who was a member of the chess club, along might be helpful.
• Whoever wrote this one (Allen Hammack) was digging deep into the Monster Manual when he equipped the dungeon. A Hieracosphinx, a Pteranodon, and some Su-Monsters? The only thing missing is an Ixitachitl! Wait… room 32. Nevermind.
• If you take out the medusa, think about taking up gardening. The shrubbery needs pruning, and the coffer you’ll find might help you fund a small land war in Asia.
• In the end, its all about getting the Soul Gem, a multi-faced opaque white gem the size of a melon. The moment you enter the room, there is a 1-in-8 chance you’ll get hit by a blast from the gem. If you get hit, save versus petrification, or your skin, hair, clothes, and possessions will be bleached a ghostly white, and all magic items drained of all magic. Oh, wait, that’s if you MAKE the save. If you don’t, well, time to dig out the six-siders and start rolling up a new character!

In the end, this dungeon has some real consequences, and it’s easy to see why it suggests experienced players. If you didn’t have a passing familiarity with the ways to deal with little things like, say, resurrection, or anti-gravity, you’ll learn the definition of fail real fast. All in all, a rousing little adventure, though it would have been nice to find a few more magical weapons before the end. Oh well.

While I’ve slowed the pace on these, have no fear faithful readers, more are yet to come. See you next time!

[This series originally ran in December/January 2007/2008.]

If you’ve got a child of upper elementary or middle school age who enjoys reading and likes spooky stories, you’ll definitely want to check out Ghosts of Rockville: Search for fhe Dominion Glass, a new book by Justin Heimberg. It’s the first book in the Ghosts of Rockville series, and it has not only a great story but also a very unique twist on involving your young reader in the investigation. And at 275 pages, it’s got plenty of twists, turns, and mysteries that will entertain your young reader and have them anxiously awaiting the June 2012 release of Book 2.

The story takes place in the town of Rockville, a town full of oddities known as the Seven Unnatural Wonders that includes crop circles, a spooky forest, the Cave of Shadows, and an ominous location called the Cliffs of Death. Readers will follow the adventures of four young supernatural investigators as they take on an assignment to locate the famed Dominion Glass, a relic that apparently allows the user to talk to and control spirits.

First, there’s Jay — his dad disappeared years earlier under mysterious circumstances and Jay has an experience that gets him interested in the paranormal. He’s the leader of the group, and he’s got his own agenda when it comes to the Dominion Glass. He’s good at researching, too, and that skill will be beneficial to the remaining members of his team.

Pam comes from a family of mediums, and her mother and sister are well known in the town for offering up their skills for cash. Unfortunately, the supernatural powers don’t seem to have trickled down to Pam, and she finds herself constantly frustrated at her lack of success when her team puts her to the test. But she’s in for a surprise (and so is her team) when she soon discovers her skills slowly building up in reliability.

Brian is the odd man out — a popular kid at school, he’s also one of the smartest kids around. But he hides his intelligence by acting dumb and failing tests. It puts a strain on his investigator friends who must find new and interesting ways to talk to him so he doesn’t blow his cover with his popular girlfriend and the rest of the school. Brian has a superb memory and is good at puzzle solving… and it’s going to come in handy for hunting the Dominion Glass.

Finally, there’s my favorite character… Danni. She’s a kid-sized version of CSI, always willing to string up police tape and start an investigation. From determining who turned a squirrel into roadkill to examine handwriting and fingerprints on various clues that the team receives during their investigation, she’s an entertaining character, and her puns are hilarious. (Think CSI: Miami‘s Horatio Caine’s play on words at the beginning of each episode, and you’ve got the idea.)

The team helps fellow students battle poltergeists, find lost items, and other minor activities, but when they get a major assignment from a secretive organization (hiding in plain sight) to find the Dominion Glass, the risks really ramp up fast as they are chased and threatened by living and dead foes. At various points, each team member begins to question his or her role and value to the team, but they each will discover they have important contributions to make if the team is to succeed.

I loved the story — the four young investigators are well-written and each has a unique personality. The mystery is original, and the puzzles the team encounters are fun to figure out using a unique method called MagicView. The book comes with a small plastic square called the MagicView Lens that is placed over the various images included in the book. Depending on how the square is placed over the image, different hidden images and text are revealed. There are four letters scattered around the edges of the square that correspond to the first letter of the team members’ names — J, B, P, and D. If Jay is looking at a book page for example (and that book page is shown as a figure), you place the MagicView Lens so that the J letter is at top and see what appears. If all team members are looking at something, you simply rotate the square 45 degrees three more times to see what the other team members see… some images have only one hidden image and some have a full four hidden images.

The MagicView Lens is also an interesting method for providing the solution to a handful of puzzles provided in the book — it allows readers to first try their hands at solving the puzzle before using the square to see the answer. A few puzzles I was able to figure out on my own, but there are a couple that I could not and had to reach for the MagicView Lens. Fun stuff.

Ghosts of Rockville Book 1 is available now in hardback.

You going to pick up the controller, or the gun?

Console gaming has changed. In fact, one could make an easy case for flat out evolution. With gaming, gamers have evolved as well. Where once the stereotypical gamer was a fat pimple-faced kid in his mom’s basement, hands covered in Cheetos dust and a two-liter of Mountain Dew with a straw nearby, the gamer is now de-evolving as gaming is evolving.

Gamers didn’t always have a stereotype. They were normal kids, skinny kids, fat kids – whatever – just normal. There wasn’t a stigma, there wasn’t a stereotype. Then the really hardcore ones fell into a stereotype that they created. They became unhealthy and pale, shunning physical activity for sitting around gaming. I’m not making any judgments on that fact; I’m a gamer, but always had a healthy balance of gaming and physical activity. Even now, in my 30s, I game regularly – after I spend time at the gym.

So when I say de-evolution, I mean that the idea of gamers and their physical stereotypes are reverting to their earlier stage. Gaming has evolved, and through that evolution physical activity has re-entered the sphere of gamers and that will change everything.

Our good friends at Google run a daily puzzle challenge and asked us to help get them out to the geeky masses. Each day’s puzzle will task your googling skills a little more, leading you to Google mastery. Each morning at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time you’ll see a new puzzle, and the previous day’s answer (in invisitext) posted here.

SPOILER WARNING:
We leave the comments on so people can work together to find the answer. As such, if you want to figure it out all by yourself, DON’T READ THE COMMENTS!

Also, with the knowledge that because others may publish their answers before you do, if you want to be able to search for information without accidentally seeing the answer somewhere, you can use the Google-a-Day site’s search tool, which will automatically filter out published answers, to give you a spoiler-free experience.

And now, without further ado, we give you…

TODAY’S PUZZLE:

Starting at the White House, walk directly north on 16th Street NW to reach a traffic circle named for a famous American general. This man ran for president and lost to what Democrat?

YESTERDAY’S ANSWER (mouseover to see):

Search for [liszt rimsky-korsakov d'Abbadie] and discover they all shared the experience of “synesthesia.” Use the search [define:synesthesia] to learn that synesthetes often see letters in color, or taste shapes.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5, Cover, Courtesy of DC Comics

Since last year’s relaunch of its comics universe, DC Comics has been doing their part to keep the new continuity clean and free of cross-overs. They seem to be holding tight, for the moment, on their moratorium on mega-events. What they are doing, as evident in books like Animal Man and Swamp Thing, is sprinkling little bits of flavor from one title to the next. The latest example? Last week, DC Comics’ O.M.A.C. #5 placed its titular character smack in the cross-hairs of a certain Frankenstein’s monster. This Wednesday, January 11, the fight carries over into Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5, and GeekDad was fortunate enough to score a sneak peak.

According to the publisher’s solicits:

When Checkmate fails to bring the rogue metahuman O.M.A.C. under control, they call in S.H.A.D.E.’s best agent, Frankenstein! It’s all-out monster mayhem as O.M.A.C. and Frank battle in the streets of Metropolis. But what is Brother Eye’s real goal? It’s up to Father Time and Ray Palmer to find out! Continued from this month’s O.M.A.C. #5!

This half of the tale is brought to you by acclaimed writer Jeff Lemire and artist Alberto Ponticelli, with cover by J.G. Jones. If you read part one, then you’re probably anticipating this Wednesday’s release. So, why not skim on down and scratch that comics itch? You know you want to.

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5, Page 1, Courtesy of DC Comics

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5, Page 2, Courtesy of DC Comics

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5, Page 3, Courtesy of DC Comics

Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #5, Page 4, Courtesy of DC Comics

Or would it be better named a Crossnumber puzzle?

Update: Many thanks to the first few posters that (correctly) identified that a last-moment renumbering inserted a few “puzzle gremlins.” I believe that they are all addressed!

As always, send your solved puzzle to GeekDad Puzzle Central for a chance at this week’s $50.00 ThinkGeek Gift Certificate.

On Monday, Wizards of the Coast announced that work is already under way on the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. An article in the New York Times by GeekDad contributor Ethan Gilsdorf details some of the recent history and philosophy that underlies the new development, while a Legends & Lore article by Mike Mearls reveals that part of the process will involve an open play-testing, with rules, classes, monsters and other material being revealed through the D&D website for playtesters to try at their own tables and provide feedback, thereby shaping the development of the game.

I think it’s safe to say that this announcement doesn’t come as a major surprise to anyone following the difficulties the Dungeons & Dragons game has experienced as of late. An excellent series of articles (past, present, & future) on The Escapist details several of these.

Not the least of these issues is the fact that Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder RPG, built on the Open Gaming License (OGL) of D&D 3.5, is now the number-one selling RPG for the past two quarters.

Paizo has also recently introduced plastic miniatures for the Pathfinder RPG, as well as a new Beginners Box set for its game, and has also recently announced that both a MMORPG and comic book series are now in development.

Add to that the fact that recent articles on the D&D website have hinted at ideas that might form the foundation of a new edition and that Wizards has recently rehired Monte Cook, well known for his role in developing the 3rd edition of D&D, and it seemed pretty clear that a something new was in the works. In fact, speculation that a new edition would be announced at GenCon 2011 was very high after Wizards had announced the cancellation of several highly anticipated 4th Edition products (a game based in Ravenloft, e.g.). Then there was the indication that something big was going to be announced at GenCon but was withdrawn at the last moment. Hence, it’s hard to be surprised or, at least for me personally, excited about today’s announcement.

Photo: Wizards of the Coast

As for the 4th edition of D&D, it’s hard to say what its lasting legacy will be. On the positive side, it introduced a new way to play the game, adding streamlined play, improved ease of dungeonmaster preparation, and character classes that were complementary and balanced. Many, including Mearls himself, have suggested that they may have been too well-balanced. Many players felt these changes were a breath of fresh air and ingenuity.

On the other hand, the introduction of 4E caused a major schism in the D&D player base and publishing world alike, one that ultimately lead to the rise of the Pathfinder RPG and a fragmentation of D&D’s player base. Go to any game store or basement table playing D&D and you will likely discover groups playing a D&D retroclone, D&D 3.5, the Pathfinder RPG or 4E. While you will find some groups that overlap, for the most part these groups are mutually exclusive.

So what was once one relatively small player base, at least compared to Magic: the Gathering‘s or World of Warcraft‘s, has now split into four groups who (as a quick look at most forums or blogs will reveal) do not get along. The disagreements, rooted in both philosophical and economic differences, have spawned the term “edition wars.”

It’s hard not to predict that the announcement of 5th Edition D&D is going to have the same effect, only this time splitting an already reduced 4E player base into 4E and 5E camps — especially considering that the current edition, which was released in June of 2008, has had such a short life. It is also difficult for me to expect much of a change when it comes to a new edition because most of my issues with the current edition are not due to the system itself but the lack of support and consistent vision from Wizards of the Coast about the game.

For the past few years, starting with the very announcement of 4E and the Virtual Tabletop debacle, Wizards has been very poor at communicating honestly and openly with its fan base and has put out a string of very sub-par or poorly supported products, many of which saw errata almost immediately after their release. The inclusion of new “features,” such as the Fortune Card — which, regardless of what they claim, was meant to be collected since issuing cards in randomized packs with common/uncommon/rare designations by definition makes them collectible — and putting most of the online support material behind a paywall, also turned off many potential players. Confusing titles and formats (for example, the adoption of the digest-size books for the Essentials line and then subsequent abandonment of that format) didn’t help the matter.

In addition, Wizards of the Coast has had a great deal of difficulty delivering on what they have promised. The online software tools have regularly gone months without updates, the online “magazines” have been up and down in quality. It’s unclear what will become of the much anticipated VTT, which is still in beta testing after years of delay, now that a new edition is underway. It’s not hard to imagine that the 4E fans who have been waiting more than three years to play their favorite version of D&D online are out of time and thus out of luck.

Therefore, I view this announcement with a great deal of skepticism. However, I also cannot help but hope that perhaps the D&D developers have truly reflected on what went wrong and right with the last edition of the game, and are going to make a serious effort to rectify all of the shortcomings with the upcoming edition. Where they need to start is with rebuilding the bond of trust with their fans, through open communication and an honest effort to make a great, open-sourced game, rather than one built strictly based on corporate profit margins. If they were to do that, I think it would be an immense step in the right direction and perhaps begin to bring all of the disparate “D&D” players back into the fold.