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For many nerds like me, I worry that my kids might not be as big of fans of the Sci-Fi genre that I am (which is unlikely with my Blu-ray collection). With that in mind, I decided to make a list of movies that I think would be a great introduction for kids to get into the Sci-Fi genre.

1. Flight of the Navigator
   
   This great story is fairly timeless. The family in the series is very much like any family now a-day, but it's set back in the 80s. It shows the story of a kid who is taken by an alien space-craft (that is run by an artificial intelligence) and when he was traveling he somehow absorbed all of the ship's AI for navigation, making him the Navigator. The ship, not wanting to endanger the kid, tries to take him back home after scanning his brain patterns and getting it's maps back... along with 12 years of 70s and 80s pop-cultre. It's a great movie for kids to see and for parents to get re-aquainted with.
    
2. Ghost Busters
   This one is sneaky because there is so much action that a lot of kids will really get into it. It's about a trio of scientists who are studying paranormal activity when their grant is revoked. They end up taking their research and put it to use by starting a business where they catch ghosts for the citizens of New York. They end up realizing that the activity is a bit extreme and get to fight a 300' Marshmallow Man. Total classic.
   
   
3. The Last Starfighter
   Growing up, this was my favorite Sci-Fi movie. I must have watched this at least once a day for four months (with a bit of Roger Rabbit thrown in for good measure). It's about a kid growing up in a Trailer Park and his only escape from his horrible life is to play a video game at the park's diner. After he beats the game he gets thrown into space where he gets to play the game again, but this time, it's real. Fantastic movie, especially once your kids are already into Sci-Fi a bit.
    
4. Tron
   I almost didn't put Tron into this list because it's a bit too violent, but then I added in Star Wars and a few others and realized that it's perfectly fine. This is also a great movie to start your kids on getting interested in visual graphics and effects. Letting them know that this was made before simple effects were available and that they had to hand-draw those lines into the suits will let your kids really appreciate a few things about the evolution of that technology... and it's a totaly rad movie, too!
    
5. Star Wars (Original Trillogy)
   Even though the New Trillogy is more kid friendly, try to show them the original trillogy first. It really sets the mood a bit better and lets your kids experience the series the way it was intended to be seen, completely out of order. But all that aside, it's a fantastic series of movies, and even if your kids like the Ewoks a bit too much, the important thing is that THEY LIKE STARWARS!
    
6. E.T.
   The changes that were done to this movie weren't all THAT bad, but if you can get your hands on an original version... all the better . It's a great movie that teaches kids about acceptance and is also a really great film. This is another one of those ones that I watched dozens of times... but I think my mom edited the movie, because I never remembered the whole scene with ET dieing and then coming back to life... very odd that that was edited out of my memory... Sneaky moms.
    
7. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
   Another great "First Sci-Fi" kind of movie, this one is sneaky, because you are so interested in the story that you don't realize that it's Sci-Fi. But when you think about it a bit, you realize that the whole story is fantasticly of that genre more than any other. A machine that shrinks anything in it's beam, a giant ant that is used as a mount (with a bit of Oreo as a lure), a scene with a huge Scorpion that attacks everyone, the whole thing is just PACKED with great scenes that any kid could get into.
    
8. Back to the Future
   It's amazing that kids now-a-day like this movie. It's an old movie, about going even further back in time, and then they come forward to a point that we were promised, but never got delivered Be that as it may, it's still a fantastic series, and even if they just see the first movie, it's more than enough for them to really love this time-traveling classic.
    
9. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
   While they strayed WAY off of the book's formula, they still got the message of this movie across. Don't Panic. Also, kids will totally LOVE Marvin since he's so dang cute and cuddly and depressed. Not to forget to mention that your little boy nerds in training will get to take a gander at Trillian. Va-va-va-Voom!
    
10. The Wizard of Oz / Return to Oz 
     While the original movie is a bit more of a Fantasy, the second movie is definately a Sci-Fi genre. It's very odd and strange, but if you can get into the movie it's really fantastic. I still remember being afraid of the Wheelers in the second movie and getting all excited when the troops surrounded Dorothy in the first. Fantastic series that will lock them in young.

1. Logan's Run 
   This is one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies of all time. I also think it would be awesome to see a world ravaged by likely horrors having a hidden Dystopian society buried under their city. The whole part with the frozen gate could be ignored, but the rest is a total masterpiece that would be fantastic to have exposed to the youth of today.
    
2. Enemy Mine
   I had actually forgotten about this movie for a while until I was browsing around on Netflix and came across it as a movie I should like. I popped it on since it looked interesting and memories came flooding back. Having a current version of this movie out in theatres would do nothing but improve the quality of life for kids out there.
    
3. Farenheight 451
   The movie for F-451 is 70s-Tastic. I really enjoyed the movie, but if we could keep the great storytelling that it had with the graphics and technology of today, I think that it would bring a great light to this fantastic book (one that I have read more than a dozen times).
    
4. A Clockwork Orange
   This movie... made me mad. Not the parts that most people would think, but the ending. In the end of the movie we currently have, Alex (the main chracter) is given a cure for his treatment and is treated like some sort of hero for going through the process. In the book however, they do end up curing him, but then they kick him out of the hospital and tell him if he does anything again, he won't see the light of day. Shortly after that he meets up with one of his friends (the one we didn't see kicking his ass earlier) and he's all normal with a fiance who thinks that Alex's accent is hilarious. It really shows a good message that everyone can change, even those who have done horrible things. This movie NEEDS a remake... perhaps we could even get Malcolm MacDowell to play the Warden or something.
    
5. Dune
   I don't like the dune books, they just didn't interest me. But the Dune movie... that was RAD. I would love to see a remake of this movie in theatres. To be fair though, Dune almost made it into my hallowed list of movies they should never touch (I mean c'mon, Sting played Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen). But thinking on it, I feel that they could really do a lot with this story, so long as they focused on the story and not solely on special effects.
    
6. Explorers
   There aren't enough kids movies out there. While I would love to make an entire list of 20-30 movies that I feel that every kid should watch (and I probably will, too) I wanted to get the Explorers into this list because it's a fantastic movie that I think could be done properly, while still keeping with the story.

Well, I had my first game on Monday and it was pretty fun. We just did a few basic things to figure out the storyline and get us all set up to start the actual campaign. Most of the day was spent joking around and such though, but it was still rather fun.

Now my big exciting idea is that soon my Wife is going to join us in a campaign starting at Level 1 (Likely we will end up doing a slightly beefed up version of the  Keep of Shadowfell). She was really intrigued by the game early on, realizing that it was just like playing Warcraft, but without the actual game.

In November, I will be 31 years old and a father of my daughter Avaleigh. I have been playing RPGs since I was 14 when I first got onto the AOL Free MUD, Legends of Terris.  Back in those days, I was really big into role playing and loved the imagination that I was able to take advantage of, since everything was in words and the graphics weren't even thought of yet.

As more games came out, I would go to them, always boasting of my great past with Role Playing Games... but that was sort of a lie.

As we all know, D&D is one of the first official RPGs that would allow the players to use their imagination and team up with others to complete their goals. Well, to this day, I have never played a full campaign.

That's not to say I haven't tried. Over the years I've bought most of the books and have leanred how to play and I think I will be quite good at it, but to date, I have never had a game with friends.

That all will change this coming Monday, May 7th, 2012. One of my friends in the area said he wanted to put a game together and run a campaign, so once again I brushed off the books and went to work on learning how to play the game. I don't think it will be all that hard to get back into D&D since I have always been a fast learner, and I've played a few Virtual Table games the last few days (I even started building one based on Keep of the Shadowfell).

Now on top of all of this, their team is already up to L6. I'm not sure if they just rolled L6 characters or if they actually built them, but either way I feel like I am missing something of the lower levels. So I talked to my wife and she talked with a couple of her friends and we're going to get a small 4 person team together with a possible 5th joining us as we go along.

Now the L6 team I am looking forward to since I will get to play with vets, but the team with my wife and friends I am really looking forward to since it will get us to learn the game together and we can have a good bit of fun while we're at it.

I'll let you know how it goes next week. Until then, this is Jorom, signing out.