Yearly Archives:
sSENSOR SWEEP: Corrupt Cops, New Voices, Brighter Days, and Candy-Ass Nonsense
Wednesday , 17, August 2016 Sensor Sweep 9 CommentsThe Scouring of the Shire (CS Globe) 70 Years Ago Today, WWII Vets Took Up Arms Against Corrupt Cops and Ran Them Out of Town — “After the former soldiers retrieved pistols, shotguns, and various other weapons, throngs of citizens joined them in surrounding the county jail where at least 25 deputies had run for […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: Avalon Hill’s The Arab-Israeli Wars
Wednesday , 17, August 2016 Wargames Leave a commentThe Arab-Israeli Wars takes many of the core mechanics of Panzer Leader and Panzer Blitz, incorporates some of the various fixes implemented to them, adds some various long-range artillery and air-power rules, and sticks it in the deserts of the Middle East. We warmed up to The Arab-Israeli Wars with one of the smaller scenarios, […]
John Denver’s album Poem’s, Prayers, and Promises is surprisingly eclectic. It’s got two of his most famous songs on it– “Sunshine on My Shoulders” and “Take Me Home Country Roads– but they are set off with some real oddities. At one extreme, you have the surprisingly churchy “Gospel Changes” and at the other you have […]
I came to Neal Stephenson somewhat late when compared to a lot of other people. Mostly, I think, because I picked up 1999’s Cryptonomicon when it came out, and, even though I enjoyed it, was disgruntled that I’d read a cryptography textbook masquerading as a novel, and an adventure novel masquerading as a science fiction […]
This fascinating new site aims to test the last year’s claims about kids these days being unable to get excited about classic science fiction. Here’s the deal: I’ve rounded up a pool of younger people who have agreed to let me expose them to classic works of science fiction and assembled a list of older works […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 3 Part 1
Monday , 15, August 2016 Tabletop Games 4 CommentsPlay report 3a: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Anchors aweigh! Part 1. After the first session total party kill, and the second session introduction of the barbarian übermensch this third session started to hit a stride. The session began with the two Barbarians and the Shugenja at loose ends in the village […]
There is a new hardback collection of stories by Joe Abercrombie entitled Sharp Ends. The stories all set in the world of The First Law Trilogy, Red Country, The Heroes, and Best Served Cold. The publisher is Orbit Books, $25.00, 287 pages, hardback. Publishing date is listed as April 26, 2016 though I just found […]
Nearly a decade ago, I remember this guy holding forth on rpgs at a friend’s house. I took an instant dislike to him. In the first place, I kind of got the drift that he’d maybe take a dim view of the sort of vintage games I like. He was also threatening to take my […]
Short Reviews – The Raid on the Termites, by Paul Ernst
Friday , 12, August 2016 Book Review Leave a commentThe Raid on the Termites by Paul Ernst (best known for his pulp crime-fighter The Avenger) was the featured cover story of the June 1932 issue of Astounding. You know those stories, you’ve seen them before in countless children’s shows, where the kids go “wouldn’t it be cool to see the inside of the ant-farm?”, […]
I want to point out a very common criticism I get. There’s something off about it and I’ve answered parts of this before… but I find it curious that it crops up from people in entirely different domains and from people on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Here are the two latest examples if […]
WARGAME WEDNESDAY: The Wargamer’s Take on Eurogaming
Wednesday , 10, August 2016 Uncategorized 3 CommentsThe Player’s Aid puts out some of the best wargaming content around. I was glad at first to see that they were branching out into other types of board games, because really… I do want to know what’s going on outside of the hard core wargaming scene. But hey, I don’t mind hearing about that […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Pan, Stone Henge, and the Gods of the Copybook Headings
Tuesday , 9, August 2016 Appendix N, Superversive 7 CommentsIn reading through Appendix N, one of the things that most struck me was how Pan has all but dropped from the literary conversation over time. In Lord Dunsany’s day, that third tier Greek god was something of a rock star. He was so captivating, he was even fundamental to one of the era’s most […]