My friends and family have started to despise meyes, more than usual. At first I thought it was because I had stopped showering. As it turns out, no, but I did manage to alienate plenty of people with sensitive olfactory glands. Then I thought it was because I started boycotting Marvel comics for killing off Johnny Storm and replacing him with Spider-Man, but most folks were behind me on that one. The Future Foundation? Please. And the new costumes? They look like extras from the Mike Teevee sequence in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. What happens if they spill something on them? Anyway, one day, while I was petting my stuffed direwolf, and sharpening my replica of the greatsword Ice, it hit me: Its because Ive been talking about nothing but HBOs Game of Thrones for the last two weeks.

Based on George R. R. Martins epic fantasy saga, A Song of Ice and Fire, season one of the new series is an adaption of the first of the Martinverse novels, A Game of Thrones. The essential premise behind this medieval fantasy drama is based upon the survival of goodness in a post-magical, highly political world where an unnamed cataclysm has thrown the change of seasons out of whack. Winter is coming, as the Starks say, and it may last for many years to come.

HBO is no stranger to big-budget period epics. Deadwood, Carnivale, Rome, and even the new smash hit Boardwalk Empire are already the stuff of legend. The size and scale of Game of Thrones is enormous, and HBOs inscrutable wealth and peerless production value are both visible in every shot of the new series.

Episode one, Winter is Coming, premiered to 4.2 million viewers, a modest but respectable number, which was good enough to get the show green-lit for a second season. So the real question is: why arent you watching? If you already are, you hardly need a reminder of the reasons below, but feel free to disagree. If you arent, hopefully this list can slap some sense into youand if not, may the Others take you!

If youre a nerd looking to spend a few dollars at the ol movie house this weekend, think twice about where youre going to invest that hard-earned gil. You may want to save up for a Nintendo 3DS, a Verizon iPhone, or even a jumbo case of Wild Cherry Pepsi. Its not that I endorse staying at home with your Netflix and your Cheddar Jalapeno Cheetos (actually, I do endorse those things), but it just might prove to be the wisest move concerning this weeks cinematic offerings.

Filch, the Professor, and I had ourselves a little night at the movies this past Friday evening. What started off as a gentlemanly agreement to go out and support Nick and Simons new movie (yes, were on a first name basis with themno, they have no idea who we are) turned into a deviant and lamentable decision to sneak into Sucker Punch.

Armed with the Professors snacks, Filchs super phone, and my derring-do, we ventured off into the local multiplex and held on tight.

Many of our readers have probably heard something about the seemingly doomed Spider-Man musical being produced on Broadway by U2s Bono and The Edge, and visionary director Julie Taymor. Amid numerous accidents (involving actors, stunt workers, and technicians), the show has been forced to delay its opening until February 7, 2011. This marks the fourth major delay in production since the show was slated to premiere in the fall of 2010.

The most recent setback came when stuntman and actor Christopher Tierney fell 30 feet from a harness that was meant to keep him suspended mid-air during the shows final scene. Though his injuries were not serious, the fall badly frightened cast and audience members and caused the actress playing Mary Jane to burst into hysterics.

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which will go on record as the most expensive musical ever produced on Broadway, has been a prime target for critics, comedians, and New Yorks theater elite. If the show doesnt clean up its act, it will suffer an irreparable loss of integrity, and may prove the most costly mistake in the history of the American stage.

Thankfully, researchers here at Nerd Blerp.com have gotten to the root of the problem. In an astounding turn of events, our crack team of journalists have obtained an exclusive interview with the man claiming to be the mastermind behind the ruination of this highly anticipated super-musical. Thats right, boys and girls. Nerd Blerp.coms own Huey has obtained an interview with Norman Osborn.

Oh, if you insist. This is the third and final installment of A Treatise on Dungeon Building: Hiding the Grail. In case youve missed them, parts one and two are still available for your perusal, and come highly recommended (by me) before reading this article. But you seem rather like the impatient sort, so perhaps wed better get started.

In part two, I began my assessment of a dungeons five major components: Tricks, Traps, Puzzles, Monsters, and Treasure. However, because I tend to get a little wordy, I only got as far as Puzzles before I decided that the article was running too long and my readers might have something better to dolike watch all of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.

So, without further ado, Ill be picking up where we left off. Lets take a look at those most necessary and vital pieces of a dungeon: its monsters.

MONSTERS dont really need much explaining. Your heroes are in search of a valuable prize, and the monsters stand in their way. There is no simpler relationship in all the world of tabletop gaming. But, once more, monsters are often misused by game masters, or are the victims of seemingly inexplicable extraction from the Monster Manual.

There is always the temptation on the part of the game master to flip through the Monster Manual and just pick the coolest, most vicious-looking thing in the chapter. This is usually done with the intent of displaying the artists rendering to the players, and eliciting a chorus of oohs and aahs! Clearly, this is not the best method for monster selection.

We go back to our essential question: Who built this dungeon and for what purpose? Sometimes its hard to keep this in mind when selecting monsters. But, much like with your tricks, traps, and puzzles, your monsters must make sense in the world of your dungeon.

As the folks at Nerd Blerp.com know well, Im a huge fan of Spartacus: Blood and Sand. What started off as the years guilty pleasure for the curious TV viewer quickly became (according to todays press release) the highest rated show for the 18-49 demographic among all cable networks for 12 of the 13 Fridays on which it aired based on coverage rating. Total viewers for the series doubled from the premiere episode to the season finale.

Numbers like that are nothing short of impressive, and reflect a dedicated interest from the fans in seeing the series continue. With lead actor Andy Whitfield fighting a relapse of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and the certainty of a sequel to Blood and Sand called into question, the shows producers decided to go ahead with a six-part prequel series, the highly anticipated Gods of the Arena.

Check out the brand new TRAILER featuring Executive Producer Steven S. DeKnight!

Great news for you True Blood comic book fans out there! IDW and HBO have just announced that the True Blood comic book series will release an all-new story arc in February, 2011. After the record breaking sales of the first series, All Together Now, series creators are clearly looking to strike while the iron is hot.

Actor Michael McMillan, who plays the good Reverend Steve Newlin on the hit HBO series, will join popular writer Marc Andreyko for a six-issue arc set to hit sale racks on February 15.

Co-Writing the TRUE BLOOD comic is a dream come true both as a performer on the show and as longtime comic fan. It's a real privilege to build on the rapidly growing True Blood mythology, said McMillian.

Andreyko continues: Words can't express how excited I am to be writing this with Michael. We're doing our damndest to spin a tale that fans of the show, and comics readers, will drink up like blood!

As was the case with True Bloods first story arc, the second series will continue to expand the world of Bon Temps, Louisiana. The upcoming issues focus on baby vamp Jessica getting a hold of some contaminated bottles of Tru Blood and going completely crazy. Its up to Sookie, Bill, and the rest of the gang to get to the bottom of the mystery. No guarantees on Scooby-Doo making an appearance (unless you count Sam), but we can count on Hoyt, Terry, Arlene, and (of course) Steve Newlin to make their comic book debuts.

Artist Joe Corroney will join Andreyko and McMillan on the new arc, with the illustrious J. Scott Campbell providing covers.

In the first part of A Treatise on Dungeon Building: Hiding The Grail, I covered some basic dos and donts on dungeon-crafting for aspiring game masters and tabletop enthusiasts. The following article contains more of the same, but focuses more on the middle and later steps of the dungeon building process. Now that youve had some time to consider how a dungeon is created, its time to reconsider how it functions.

So, provided weve already asked ourselves: Who built this dungeon and for what purpose?, and have been able to answer this question with authority and reason, were ready to address the nuts and bolts of the design phaseHow does this dungeon operate?

Were going to break this subject down into its most recognizable components. All the many things found in a dungeon usually fall into one of five major categories: Tricks, Traps, Puzzles, Monsters, and Treasure.

I have been a dedicated player of Dungeons and Dragons for a number of years, having gotten hooked on the game back in high school when we were all looking for something that was cheaper than Magic: The Gathering and more fulfilling than a standard run on EverQuest. When I sat down to my first session, I was blown away by how immersive and personal the experience of tabletop gaming could be with the right group of playersand, of course, the right game master.

Contrary to popular belief, I did not break out with a severe case of acne, gain forty pounds, or disregard all proper forms of hygiene. I did not change my default language to gamerspeak in public, referring to all things glorious as epic and all things disappointing as a fail. I did not attempt to summon, worship, or otherwise deify Satan. I did not begin wearing a necklace with a 20-sided die dangling from it (at least not until college). I was the same person I had always been, but the experience of playing Dungeons and Dragons had made me fundamentally more open to the possibilities of storytelling in real-time.

As any player of DD can tell you, the real magic of the experience is what happens spontaneously between the players and the world of the game master (GM) during a session. Even the purchasing of the right source materials from Wizards of the Coast, or fifty pages of intricate back story from a dedicated player, pale in comparison to the extemporaneous fireworks produced by those seated around the table during the course of the game. But those legendary nights of belly-laughs and righteous conquests cannot occur without the proper planning on the part of the GM.

Look, not every episode can be Nights in Ballygran. Boardwalk Empire took some moderate heat this week for releasing another slow episode, and Im beginning to think people in America have forgotten how to watch a television serieswhich I would have thought was impossible, since Americans do that more often than any other people in the world.

As any fan of long-form storytelling has learned, the transition episodes are just as important as the ones that contain the big plot points and reveals. While Family Limitation was slower in pace, and smaller in size and scale than Nights in Ballygran, it was still an important installment that produced tremendous opportunities for character development that enriched the shows already complex relationships.

I think fans of Boardwalk Empire were wondering if an episode could be more enchanting and immersive than the series self-titled pilot episode, directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese. Many viewers have been complaining that the subsequent installments of the first season are of an inferior quality, unable to match the standard set by the Goodfellas director in episode one. Well, for those who tuned in to the fifth installment of season one, titled Nights in Ballygran, we got our answer.

While any television fan could have anticipated that things on the show would begin to heat up towards the middle of the season, few could predict that an episode of surpassing beauty and storytelling would raise the already sky-high bar even higher. Nights in Ballygran is, in fact, better than the pilot.

Set against the backdrop of the first St. Patricks Day under Prohibition, Nucky tries to impress Atlantic Citys kingmakers by proving that the Volstead Act wont stand in the way of their annual festivities. What results is a shocking play by Margaret, proving shes a force to be reckoned with, the first major move by Agent Van Alden in the war on liquor, and the tragic resolution of Pearl and Jimmys Chicago love story.