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sThis is the game that got me back into gaming. I mean just look at it… that sleek, understated cover. There’s a space combat game in the back. Its loaded with pictures of aliens and starships. The possibilities are endless… and combined with the imposingly long history of this gaming franchise you have a game […]
Leigh Brackett created a hard character in Eric John Stark, also known as N’Chaka, the man without a tribe. He is probably the most brutal pulp magazine character since Conan the Cimmerian. Leigh Brackett grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs. The book that started it all was The Gods of Mars. She told writer David […]
Ye Olyde School: Donald Featherstone’s War Games through the Ages Series -Update
Wednesday , 25, November 2015 Wargames 4 CommentsI received my copy of War Games through the Ages Vol. 4 the day after the review was posted and would like to complete it here. I was not disappointed with this volume and glad the set is finally complete. Along with the lonewarriorswa.com review I also found the Diminishing Role of Cavalry chapter to […]
For as long as I can remember, I have assumed that AD&D was practically unplayable. TSR just never really demonstrated to me that they had a grasp of either editing or blind testing– or any kind of playtesting, really. And while companies like Steve Jackson Games would painstakingly maintain errata and carefully fold in developments […]
November 25 is the birthday for Poul Anderson (1926-2001). He is an important author in my life. I probably have more books by Anderson than any other science fiction author (Jack Vance is probably second). Anderson wrote space opera, fantasy, humorous science fiction, mysteries, a little hard science fiction etc. He not only had breadth […]
“Bull Run, while comparatively disastrous as a battle-field, was a grand success to the North in other respects. It sobered, for a time at least, the hasty reckless spirits who believed that the South would not fight, and who were so unceasingly thorning the President to immediate decisive action.” – Cpl. John D. Billings, Hard […]
Games That Made Me Cry: Gamma World Third Edition
Monday , 16, November 2015 Tabletop Games 10 CommentsThis was for many years just about the only complete role-playing game rule set in my collection. I was simultaneously smitten with the very idea of rpg design and mystified by the concept of game mastering. Thus, periodically I would settle down to read my favorite game cover to cover in the hopes that I […]
It has been one and a half years since the last issue of Weird Tales has been published. Weird Tales has undergone four separate attempts at reanimation. There was the Sam Moskowitz edited version for four issues in 1973-74. That was a mostly reprint magazine of public domain material with a few new stories. Lin […]
Sharing a hobby with your kids and grandkids is a time honored tradition practiced without shame by everyone from fly-fishermen to game hunters to ball players…the local park even has a few hipster dads teaching their sons how to walk slack lines, wear man-buns, and walk with an air of inexplicable smug superiority. Compared to […]
Rpg Scene: White Star’s Stripped Down Space Dungeons
Monday , 9, November 2015 Tabletop Games 3 CommentsThis game has been the talk of the town this past year with a great many people lighting up Google+ with comment and fanfare about it. It’s a relatively big deal as far as the rpg scene is concerned, however… I have to say up front that I am not in the target audience of this […]
I just had another example this past week on the importance of primary research. That is, go back to the beginning and look at the material yourself. This is the third time I can think of this happening. The first event was back in the middle 1990s. I was the Official Editor of the Robert […]
Ye Olyde School: Donald Featherstone’s War Games through the Ages Series
Wednesday , 4, November 2015 Wargames 5 CommentsVox recently called for contributors to a Wargame Wednesday feature which will tie in with an initiative in support of a new game release from Excalibre Games. Excalibre specializes in old school, turn based, cardboard counter games board games. Many of these games were well received and remind me of the old Avalon Hill classics. That […]