Books (Don Herron): You may not know, but way back in 1931, the up-and-coming Wisconsin writer August Derleth teamed up with the newly famous detective novelist Dashiell Hammett to edit a collection of supernatural horror fiction titled Creeps by Night: Chills and Thrills.

Over the next forty years, Derleth would become one of the most prominent figures promoting the literature of horror, not only with the many anthologies and collections issued by his small press Arkham House, but with a baker’s dozen of his own mainstream anthologies, beginning with Sleep No More in 1944.

While Hammett’s fame as an author would only increase from that point on, Creeps by Night would be his single significant brush with the weird tale.

Writers (Don Herron); It wouldn’t engage a flight of fancy to say that Robert E. Howard was known to have exaggerated a bit in his correspondence. Whether he thought he needed to impress his friends by inventing — or improving upon —  fights or marathon drinking binges he had either participated in or had been a witness to is something that most likely will never be completely uncovered by any Howard scholar.

But I’ve got one for you.

A 4^th of July letter to future Arkham House co-founder, and Howard’s fellow contributor to Weird Tales, August Derleth has always attracted my attention.

Publishing (Walker’s Retreat): It’s time, folks. We’ve got the writers eating the lunch of the SJW-dominated tradpub world of SF/F novels and also, slowly, trying to find a way to bring back the old magazines so that short fiction can find a market again. Across the street (so to speak) we’ve got the comics guys kicking the SJWs in the crotch and taking their milkshakes. In both vidya and tabletop, SJWs are losing ground as their antics keep showing the customers how fucked in the head they are- opening the door to sane competitors like Alexander Macris and the Pundit. And behind the scenes, grinning with satisfaction as it all unfolds, is the Supreme Dark Lord sipping his wine while atop his skull-adorned throne.

Conventions (Superversive SF): After Liberty Con Superversive Livestream

Gaming (RPG Pundit): Well, the last couple of classic rants have generated a lot of discussion on the subject of social interaction in RPGs, and why I think most systems for “social mechanics” (much less ‘social combat’ or things like that) are abominable.
But a few people seemed to have some sense of confusion as to how I could in one blog entry praise the mechanics of the Reaction Table from D&D as an example of a useful social-RP tool, and in another condemn the idea of using social skills/mechanics/whatever as a substitute for actually being required to ROLEPLAY it.
This is clearly a result of people not having really read, or not understanding, how I make use of the Reaction rolls in OSR play. So it’s time to be more specific about the nuts and bolts of it.

Gaming (Niche Gamer): Here’s a rundown on the new mode and the game itself:

Releasing in fall 2018, GRIP will feature, among other modes, 19 challenging ‘Carkour’ maps in which players are challenged to master a series of increasingly mind-bending stunt courses. Eighteen maps are Point-to-Point, culminating in a final, ‘open’ map – a playground of jumps, twist and turns packed full of collectibles.

From the short, sharp, shock of the Easy (Airtime, Speed, Squiggly, Tubes, Upsy Downsy) and Normal (Live Jump, Scoops, Slide) courses to the more demanding Hard (Angles, Endurance, Rainbow Road) and Nightmare (Half Tubes, Loop Gap) runs, there’s something to challenge everyone irrespective of skill level. Carkour Mode is the perfect tonic for those looking to concentrate on fine-tuning their timing, speed, and spatial awareness before heading back into Campaign or multi-player modes.

Culture (Kairos): By now it should be obvious to everyone that we are all, in a real and quantifiable sense, going back. Even a mainstream media organ as lost in the fog of Current Year chronological snobbery as the New York Times is now forced to admit that American culture has regressed as hard and as far as the 1980s.

I have spent the last month trapped in a wrinkle in time. Not the film, mind you, though that was quite the fashion moment, and not the book. Rather, sitting by the runways, hour after hour, day after day, city after city between Feb. 7 and March 7, I could feel myself slipping further down a wormhole into the past. One moment it was 2018; the next it was 1981 (or ’85, or ’88).

But here’s the thing: I have been there before. I’m not sure I want to go back.

Gaming (Table Top Gaming News): So, you kinda got a quick bit of stories this morning, and with the Review Roundup, hopefully we’ll be back on track here.

Anyway, today we have: Ganz Schon Clever, Getaway Driver, Onitama: Sensei’s Path Expansion, Impulse, Alien Artifacts, and Tadmor.

Culture (The Last Redoubt): Over at Kairos, Brian points out a discussion about gatekeeping, keeping SJW’s out, and how EVS/D&C/etc. are determined to keep SJW’s out but hate being called gatekeepers.

I feel their pain. I hate bullshit – more even that flat out lies.

This conflation is pure bullshit.

An expansion of what I posted as a comment at G+:

This is jailhouse / sea lawyer bullshit. The problem here is that we’re seeing a conflation of what gatekeeping commonly means to make the D&C/EVS/alt-comics crowd look like hypocrites.

Gaming (Gaming While Conservative): It’s no exaggeration to lay the blame for the slow death of Western Civilization squarely at the feet of Lorraine Williams.  Her takeover of TSR led to the overwhelming popularity of Loser D&D, a style of play adopted by the broken souls who now lead the world.  Had Winner D&D continued to enjoy the popularity it had when  Saint Gygax stood at the helm of the USS Tabletop Gaming we would live in a world today that would make film Wakanda look like a real world African nation.

Writers (On an Underwood No. 5): Every year I attend Howard Days, seeing the Howard House and Museum is a highlight, especially if the shop at the back of the house has new items for sale. This year was no exception. Among the items that were for sale in the museum shop this year were t-shirts with new designs. It’s not easy finding REH themed t-shirts, so getting new designs at the REH House and Museum is a nice plus.

Military History (Osprey Publishing): Until 1945, Indonesia was a Dutch colony known as the Netherlands East Indies. In 1930, the area had over 60 million inhabitants and was a major exporter to Japan, providing some 13 per cent of its oil needs – second only after the United States. Following Germany’s occupation of the Netherlands in May 1940, Japan decided to expand its influence in the Netherlands East Indies.

Defending the colony was the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL). This force, designed primarily for colonial policing, underwent a series of cutbacks in the interwar years before adopting a modernisation programme in 1936, which focused on building up a strike air force, introducing tanks and increasing the firepower of the infantry and artillery.