Blog Archives

RPG (Grognardia): My direct experience of Iron Crown Enterprise’s Rolemaster during my youth was limited. I’d dabbled with Arms Law & Claw Law but that was the extent of my exploration of this venerable fantasy roleplaying system. (I was much taken with its “little brother,” Middle-earth Role Playing, which occupied a weird sweet spot in terms of its presentation of both […]

Robert E. Howard (Scifi Wright): This story contains more plot twists than other Conan yarns, and no one is whom he seems. On the one hand, it is perhaps the most crowded hence enjoyable of his stories, containing elements of everything a Conan story should have, and more. On the other, Conan seems not so […]

Art (Kickstarter): Officially licensed and sanctioned by Robert E. Howard Properties LLC, Inc., this nearly 1,500 page examination of the vast publishing illustrated history of Robert E. Howard is divided into four parts.  All four volumes are 9.5″ x 12.25″ in size, full color, smyth sewn hardcovers with dust jackets! The slip case will have […]

Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): As reported by Bloomberg Law yesterday, the State of California has sued Blizzard Entertainment over sexual harassment and a hostile work environment.  “ Video game giant Activision Blizzard Inc., maker of games including World of Warcraft and Diablo, fosters a “frat boy” culture in which female employees are subjected to constant sexual […]

Reading (With Both Hands): As someone who really likes adventure books, and really likes to blog about adventure books, there is a fascinating tension in the whole field because it is fundamentally popular entertainment, but the people who like to create these stories and the people like me who like to talk about them often […]

Review (With Both Hands): Dark Operator, the first book in the five book series by John “Doc” Spears, Jason Anspach, and Nick Cole [Amazon link] is the most thrilling example of careful planning, diligent preparation, and conscientious execution that I have ever read. And yes, I’m totally serious about that. Games (The Wert Zone): AD […]

Science Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): It’s a bit hard to believe there has been five posts covering this book (ten if we’re including Mr. Lundwall’s other book, and thirteen if we’re including Mr. Goulart’s work) but we have finally reached the end of the road. Don’t think for a second, however, that this means our […]

RPG (Matthew Constantine): It’s no secret, Call of Cthulhu is my favorite tabletop RPG.  If I had to pick one, this is it.  I’ve been playing it since the last 80s, I’ve been running it since the late 90s.  It’s the game I typically use to introduce people to the tabletop RPG hobby.  It’s my […]

Gaming (Walker’s Retreat): This is my review of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. (“FF14” and “ARR”, respectively.) It does not cover any of the expansions, as those will be reviewed seperately at a later date. Analysis of the game’s narrative is covered seperately at my writing blog, the Study, called “A Narrative Reborn”; the […]

Robert E. Howard (Orthosphere): Considering that he died at thirty, Howard’s literary accomplishments can only impress.  Stylistically, he operates at a level many ranks above that of the typical pulp writer.  His vocabulary includes a rich lode of Latin and Greek derivations and likewise of English archaisms.  Brought up, from age thirteen, in the small […]

Art (Lithub): But it isn’t only great detective novels that have gotten the pulp treatment. Classic works of literary fiction have existed as pulps from the very beginning of pulp—the new paperback publishers of the 1940s and 50s printed them right along with classic crime and some genuinely lowbrow (and sometimes quite lurid) new novels, […]