Master of Ancient and Forgotten Science: 2

I’ve mentioned before that my buddy John Wick made me a supervillain. The latest game to feature the villainous me is now available at DriveThruRPG. You get a role-playing game for the low price of $5. Come on, you know that fiver would just have bought you a lunch you’d regret later.

The Empire of Zen

Coming to a gaming table near you...

It started slowly. Nobody noticed. Tiny changes. But then, one morning, the world woke up and everything was different.

In addition to being a biologist and blogger, I am also a supervillain.

The streets had soldiers in black and red robes holding electric guns. The buildings curved up toward the sky at impossible angles. A sky that looked like a green lava lamp.

They call me, “the Nefarious Doctor Zen.”

Earth had been invaded overnight. Invaded by another world. But not a world from outer space… a world from beyond space. A world from another dimension.

My latest exploits as a supervillain can be found in a new role-playing game, Yesterday’s Tomorrow, created by game designer John Wick. The game is a love letter to pulp magazines and old Republic movie serials. John has shown up more than once on this blog, usually because the way he thinks about engaging players in a game makes me think about engaging students when teaching.

You can get the game for free – yes, that’s right, free! – at John Wick Presents. (Update: Now available here, Not free any more, but has more stuff!)

Can our brave heroes stop him? Can they prevent Doctor Zen from accomplishing his final goal?

“Never!”

Additional: John’s explanation of how I became a supervillain.

A Gmail avatar, sort of

Although my first name gets a lot of comments, my last name is more problematic, in some ways. I’ve seen many alternate spellings and heard many variant pronunciations. In particular, a lot of people say it like the small tricky mammal. (For the record, the first part is pronounced like “fall,” the season.)

Late last week, I met the wife of a colleague who was telling me about an Asian-inspired Gmail theme called Tea House. It’s fun, because it changes through the day. And she told me about this little character featured in it...


She named it, “Zen Fox.”

Peter Tuddenham, 1918-2007

Peter Tuddenham was a British actor, who, among other things, provided a huge number of voices for the SF TV series Blake's 7... including my namesake, Zen, the Liberator computer (shown below – doesn't work as a still, since this computer was all flashing lights). He just died earlier this week.

I feel like a small piece of me has died, weirdly.

Namesakes

Was looking at TV listings, scrolling down to Bravo, and read:

Work Out (Reality) Jackie sees a therapist; Zen considers cosmetic surgery; Jackie throws a sexy slumber party. TV-14 CC

I'm considering what?!

A couple of quick URLs later, and I find only my second namesake attached to an actual person. The first person I found to share my first name is actor Zen Gesner. My new namesake is apparently a trainer, Zen Gray. Although I think she only counts as half a namesake, since her website bio shows her name as "Jennifer 'Zen' Gray." She blogs as part of the show she's on.