Monthly Archives:
sGrames Barnaby writes in with what he calls “a very cancerous vid” regarding Game of Thrones: However I DO recommend watching it, for it’s a great example of just how badly modern schooling has messed up literature studies. From dismissing pulp fiction and why archetypes are too “simple” to conflating all of 19th century english lit […]
A Science Fiction Pulp Classic: The Lost World
Saturday , 30, September 2017 Before the Big Three, Book Review, Fiction 12 CommentsWhile far from unknown, and especially popular in the first few decades after its release, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World is rarely mentioned as a pulp adventure. And yet, released in 1912, the same year as Tarzan of the Apes and a year before The Insidious Dr.Fu-Manchu, it’s part of the same tradition. Primarily known for Sherlock […]
ALT-HERO Volume V is go!
Saturday , 30, September 2017 Comics, News, Promotions, Publications Leave a commentThank you, Alt★Hero backers! It looks as if we will not be needing to hold a vote on which of the first three volumes will be continued, but we will see how things proceed from here. At this point, the video producer may need to start thinking about voice talent. And we will hold a […]
When it comes to Appendix N, let’s be honest – there’s a little bit of a pecking order. Even most mainstream, casual readers have certainly heard of the likes of Tolkien and Lovecraft, probably Burroughs, and maybe Howard. Among genre fans and older gamers (which often overlap) and the true believers of the Cult of […]
ALT-HERO Volume IV unlocked!
Saturday , 30, September 2017 Comics, News, Promotions, Publications 2 CommentsAlt★Hero has unlocked its first stretch goal, a fourth volume of the ambitious comic book, on its first day of fundraising. As promised, we’ve added a second page to Dynamique’s story. Check it out on the campaign page. Check back every day for new pages, character sketches, and quite possibly, new rewards and stretch goals.
Castalia House is pleased to announce that Alt★Hero is go on Freestartr! Alt★Hero is a world not too terribly different than our own. It is a world where the Wehrmacht generals overthrew Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in 1939, and where the first atomic bomb was dropped on the order of Reichskanzler Jodl on Soviet territory […]
The classic D&D line contains some of the worst edited combat rules in game design history. To begin with, everyone seems to interpret them differently. Furthermore, referees of the bad old days tended to take incomplete and incoherent rule sets to make a great many special modifications of their own. The end result of this […]
Short Reviews – Dutchman’s Gold, Told by Arthur Greyslen and Set Down by Alan Burgess
Friday , 29, September 2017 Uncategorized Leave a commentDutchman’s Gold, Told by Arthur Greyslen and Set Down by Alan Burgess appeared in the June 1944 issue of The Wide World. Here’s a story with some stuff to steal! Exotic location, sunken treasure, a crazy villain, and a moray eel named Little Joey. Arthur Greyslen has been living the good life in a tiny […]
Prepare for the fall harvests with a round-up of September’s fantasy new releases. * * * * * Bushido Online: the Battle Begins – Nikita Thorn Seth Kinnaman’s dream has always been to become the best fighter the world has ever seen. After spending his entire life […]
Gamma World is not D&D. In the first place, it’s not about reenacting the “zero to hero” character arc. It’s also not a funnel; it’s not about creating a deadly environment and then weeding out the weak, the slow, the lame, and the unlucky. The chaos of the Shadow Years has already accomplished that to […]
THROWBACK SF THURSDAY: The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard, Part 1
Thursday , 28, September 2017 Book Review 16 CommentsUp, John Kane, the grey night’s falling; The sun’s sunk in blood and the fog comes crawling; From hillside to hill the grey wolves are calling; Will ye come, will ye come, John Kane? Tor’s Conan pastiches is no way to step away from Robert E. Howard. I enjoyed them—the Robert Jordan and John Maddox […]
JUST RELEASED: “Irula’s Apprentice” by Donald Jacob Uitvlugt
Thursday , 28, September 2017 Just Released 3 CommentsLiara is a young lioness apprenticed to her pride’s shamaness, Lady Irula. When her mistress is called to assist a neighboring pride track down a source of dark magic, Liara accompanies her. Little does she know the impossible choice that lies before her…