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sON THE TABLE: On the Rails At ALL COSTS with Call of Cthulhu
Friday , 30, June 2017 Tabletop Games 8 CommentsSo the Keeper opens up the session with a brief explanation of how everything ties together. Now, I had been asking about the Credit Rating stat which turns out to be a skill which I never put any points into when I was creating my character. He says that’s okay… he is specifically ignoring those […]
Let’s take a quick look at some of the science fiction and fantasy titles to be published in July. * * * * * A Pius Man (The Pius Trilogy #1) – Declan Finn Murder in the Vatican! As the head of Vatican security, Giovanni Figlia must […]
Short Reviews – The Return of Hastur, by August Derleth
Friday , 30, June 2017 Uncategorized 13 CommentsThe Return of Hastur, by August Derleth, appeared in the March 1939 issue of Weird Tales. You really shouldn’t read it, but if you must, it can be found here with other, much better, stories at Luminist.org. Going into The Return of Hastur, I was certain that August Derleth was going to be pretty bad […]
Classic Traveller: Scout Ship Economics
Thursday , 29, June 2017 Games, Tabletop Games, Traveller, Uncategorized 4 CommentsThe Traveller role playing game is named Traveller because characters tend to be people at loose ends bumming around the galaxy. Large chunks of the game mechanics revolve around the mechanisms of, well, travelling — including how to pay for all that travel. Unless a character is lucky enough to get drafted into a service […]
Guest Post by Bradford C. Walker: King Arthur Pendragon
Thursday , 29, June 2017 Tabletop Games 4 CommentsIf you looked up the Infogalactic entry for King Arthur Pendragon, you’d not be wrong to say that it’s quite sufficient for getting the jist of the game’s origin and history, so I won’t belabor the big reasons for its cult classic status. That it’s directly inspired by Arthurian legends, uses a variation of Chaosium’s ruleset, and has […]
JUST RELEASED: Hitler in Hell by Martin Van Creveld
Thursday , 29, June 2017 Just Released Leave a commentAfter his death in the Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler finds himself in Hell. To his surprise, he finds it to be a place of more tedium than torment, although he is depressed to learn that he will never see his beloved German Shepherd Blondi again because all dogs go to Heaven. With nothing better to […]
June 2017 Science Fiction and Fantasy New Releases
Thursday , 29, June 2017 Fiction, Just Released 3 CommentsWhether it’s hiding in the Twilight night clubs of New York City, surviving the post-apocalyptic hills of Virginia, fighting in the rearguard to protect the Long March through the Kigeli Nebula, or swooping through the skies on the steam-powered airships of Rislandia, let’s take a look at some of the hottest science fiction and fantasy adventures […]
ON THE TABLE: Back on the Rails with Call of Cthulhu
Wednesday , 28, June 2017 Tabletop Games 5 CommentsOkay, so the only game that has ever given me the feeling that I really could go anywhere or do anything right out of the box is classic Traveller. My three term scout can take his Type-S two hexes in any direction on the subsector map, opening up an incredible range of possibilities. He laughs […]
There’s something about Edgar Rice Burroughs that just causes some peoples’ heads to explode. They short circuit. Their monocle pops off. They let slip the mask. Their skin peels off to reveal the scaly lizard flesh beneath. It’s as bizarre as it is reliable. Here’s only the latest example: The idea that pulp Sci-Fi was […]
ON THE TABLE: Titans Versus Raiders in Space Empires Close Encounters
Tuesday , 27, June 2017 Tabletop Games 3 CommentsThis game was a bit of a change-up. The additional production and alien technologies that a heavy deep space colonization effort yields were nothing next to my son’s mass quantities of Titans loaded up with mass quantities of fighter squadrons. Given that I could no longer hang back while he puts together the ultimate star […]
Hollywood is a big old pile of suck, and it’s not all the fault of the usual suspects: lazy writers, crappy directors, and incompetent studio execs. No, the MPAA plays a big part as well. The MPAA—Motion Picture Association of America—is responsible for handing out all the movie ratings you see. They, and they alone, […]
D&D History for People that Hate D&D
Thursday , 29, June 2017 Jeffro Appendix N, Comment 4 CommentsCecilia D’Anastasio is back with another D&D article that puts the early days of the fantasy role-playing hobby in the worst possible light. Save Versus All Wands has already pointed out some of the inaccuracies it contains, and I won’t go into that aspect of the piece. I’m more concerned with what this article says […]