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sSENSOR SWEEP: Old-School Feel, Pink Slime Amorality, Tyrannical Future Societies, and Self-Aware Storytelling
Monday , 15, May 2017 Sensor Sweep 7 CommentsAppendix N (Rampant Games) Breaking the Old-School Fantasy Game Code — “A lot of talk lately has been about how people have suddenly rediscovered pulp because of his book (or the original blog posts), which is something I’ll talk about later this week. But from a game-design perspective, as a guy trying to infuse a game […]
Once More Unto the Breach: The Appendix N of Appendix N
Sunday , 14, May 2017 Appendix N 10 CommentsCommenter “instasetting” has this to say in response to my recent post on some particularly stupid characterizations of both Gary Gygax and Dungeons & Dragons: Cecelia wants to exalt the players; you want to exalt the canon of books Gygax loved; and I exalt the DM. Or, nice to have good players; nice to have […]
Dwight Graydon Morrow (1934-2001) better known as Gray Morrow was a major contender for a few years in the realm of sword and sorcery illustration. Born in Indianapolis, attending the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, he moved to New York City in 1954. He became friends with Wally Wood, Angelo Torres, and Al Williamson. He […]
The Double-Edged Sword of Dogmatism
Saturday , 13, May 2017 Appendix N, Authors, Before the Big Three, Fiction, Uncategorized 12 CommentsLast week, I wrote an observation about Lovecraft’s works. In the comments, several readers mentioned The Shadow over Innsmouth, a tale I had embarrassingly not read at the time. I rectified this error soon after. And wow, what an amazing story! An imaginative gem from beginning to end, with steadily mounting tension, an inspired explanation to the […]
I’m still having a bit of culture shock with this game. The other players really want to split the party, for instance. Coming from the old school D&D table, I’m like… you gotta be kidding, eh?! But no, the Call of Cthulhu veterans are completely blasé about it. You don’t win by forming up into some kind […]
The Last Kingdom is a historical fiction series based on the Saxon Stories novels by Bernard Cornwell. The first season was produced by BBC, with Netflix co-producing the second. Set in the 9th century during the viking invasions of the British Isles, the story follows the exploits of a fictional noble Saxon taken by the invaders […]
Given that my analysis of a recent article about Gary Gygax only covered the opening paragraph, I am very happy to see that Oakes Spalding over at Save Versus All Wants has given this piece his full attention: When I say that the narrative of D’Anastasio and her friends is the reverse of the truth, I […]
Softie by Noel Loomis appeared in the October 1948 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories. Thrilling Wonder Stories dips its toes into some space adventure with Softie, and despite being a comic short rather than a srs biz space opera, it delivered some worthwhile stealables. You could maybe try to run Softie as a one-off, but […]
THROWBACK SF THURSDAY: Changa’s Safari by Milton Davis
Thursday , 11, May 2017 Book Review 15 CommentsTeen boys get a bad rap. David Hartwell sneered that “the Golden Age of Science Fiction is 12.” John Rogers gibed that “There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading […]
Raging Owlbear, Complex Games Apologist, and Runeslinger on “Just Say Yes” and RAW
Thursday , 11, May 2017 Tabletop Games 12 CommentsThis is right now the most interesting discussion happening in tabletop gaming. First off, Raging Owlbear opens up with a humdinger of a blog post. It’s about a deceptively simple situation: do you let someone in a recent edition of D&D alter the racial bonuses for their elf or not? The Owlbear comes down hard […]
I get a lot of feedback on what is and isn’t obscure in fantasy and science fiction, so I was really keen on hearing this panel put on at Ravencon. Steve White is absolutely on fire, weighing in on “Planet Vietname” Syndrome in military science fiction, praising Traveller and BattleTech developer William H. Keith to […]
There’s a New Kid in Town! Broadswords & Blasters is a newly launched magazine under editors Matthew X. Gomez and Cameron Mount that promises “pulp with modern sensibilities” – more on that later, but suffice to say that I found the first issue to be not quite what I thought it was offering, but also […]