Yearly Archives:
sBack before I did the Appendix N survey, I really didn’t think too much of short stories. I know I skipped over them in things like Dragon and Omni magazine back in the eighties. The ads for things like Amazing Stories just weren’t that convincing at the time, either. I couldn’t imagine it being worth […]
Five Tips for Writing Great Short Fiction: The Case For Classic Adventure
Friday , 26, August 2016 Short Fiction 11 CommentsShort Reviews will return next week! In the meantime, enjoy this rejected bit of click-bait I wrote a while back. Short fiction has entered a strange, new and exciting phase, particularly in the realm of Science Fiction. While we hear in some quarters that short fiction is dying and no one reads short fiction any […]
The Adventurer Conqueror King System is modern variant of the “Basic” iteration of the original fantasy-role playing game. It has well developed rules for the oft-neglacted domain-level play, a large selection of variant classes and a GURPS-style system for making new ones, an excellent set of mass combat rules, and one of the best mega-dungeons […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: Milking the Brand, Monster-Size WWII Games, and Geomorphic Maps
Wednesday , 24, August 2016 Wargames Leave a commentWe have a bumpercrop of great posts on wargaming posts for you here this week! At the top of the heap is The Player’s Aid, weighing in with an exclusive interview with COIN Series creator Volko Ruhnke. If GMT going overboard with all these new COIN titles? Volko responds: Calling a design “COIN Series” at […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Why Joanna Russ Feared Heroic Fantasy
Tuesday , 23, August 2016 Appendix N, Superversive 29 CommentsJoanna Russ was perhaps the most influential critic of the seventies fantasy and science fiction scene. Here she is unceremoniously hurting a lot of feelings in her column in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Ficiton: I know it’s painful to be told that something in which one has invested intense emotion is not only […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Cat Pictures? No Thank You.
Tuesday , 23, August 2016 Superversive, Uncategorized 7 CommentsAnother year, another Hugo War. I largely sat it out this year; life is a harsh master and I had better things to spend the money and time on. But one of the nice things about the internet is that it’s much easier to look into short stories that people are talking about; a quick […]
RETROSPECTIVE: The Dolphins of Altair by Margaret St. Clair
Monday , 22, August 2016 Appendix N 2 CommentsLong and long ago, I witnessed first hand the final echoes of the eighties Satanic panic. It wasn’t D&D, rock lyrics, or daycare centers that had my modest sized Bible Belt town up in arms in this late stage. It was New Age Teaching Techniques IN OUR SCHOOLS. The local newspapers were running articles about […]
Guest Post by Misha Burnett: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Monday , 22, August 2016 Appendix X 6 CommentsIf You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him: Roger Zelazny’s Lord Of Light Roger Zelanzy’s Lord Of Light was published in 1967 and won the Hugo in 1968. It was originally published by Doubleday and has been reprinted by Harper-Voyager. There seems to be neither e-book nor audio editions available. (Pity.) His followers […]
Military Fantasy Resources: Retrospective Histories
Sunday , 21, August 2016 Uncategorized, War 2 CommentsMark Twain said that history does not repeat but it does rhyme. That can be used to advantage in writing military fantasy. I covered some contemporary histories a few weeks back. A good source for material is retrospective histories. The Book of the Sword (1884) by Richard F. Burton was supposed to be the first […]
SCENARIO DESIGN: Wizard Kings and the Pillage Rule
Friday , 19, August 2016 Game Design, Wargames 5 CommentsWhen I dashed off a few notes about the fantasy battle game my son and I were playing to death, I was really taken aback by the response: a good half dozen people reached for their wallets…! In order to help people get the most value from their brand new copy of Wizard Kings, I’m […]
Short Reviews – Priestess of the Flame, by Sewell Peaslee Wright
Friday , 19, August 2016 Uncategorized Leave a commentPriestess of the Flame by Sewell Peaslee Wright appeared in the June 1932 issue of Astounding Stories. A scanned version can be found here. I have been rather amused by the protests which have come to me regarding the “disparaging” comments I have made, in previous tales of the Special Patrol Service, regarding women. […]
10 Things About 5th Edition Tunnels & Trolls that are Old School
Thursday , 18, August 2016 Appendix N, Tabletop Games 3 CommentsThe only people its creators had to worry about offending was the legal department at TSR. There are no rules for demi-human special abilities such as elves with keen hearing, dwarves that can very nearly smell gold, and hobbits that are good at stealth. All of this sort of thing is covered by the “verbal […]