Yearly Archives:
sThis is a fascinating piece of fiction for a good half dozen reasons. Certainly, any Traveller fan worth his salt will be hooked by the second page: “I’m glad I never trained as a scout,” remarked Second Officer Walgrave. “Otherwise I might be sent down upon strange and quite possibly horrid planets.” “A scout isn’t […]
Guest Post by Misha Burnett: Vacuum Flowers by Michael Swanwick
Monday , 8, August 2016 Appendix X 4 CommentsA Match Made In Space: Michael Swanwick’s Vacuum Flowers Michael Swanwick’s Vacuum Flowers is has just been re-issued on Kindle by Open Road Media Sci & Fantasy Group. Open Road seems to be in the business of re-issuing out of print classics of genre fiction—a glance at the sample chapter from some of their other […]
Military Fantasy Resources: Part 1- Contemporary Accounts and Histories
Sunday , 7, August 2016 Uncategorized 6 CommentsSo, you have heard about military fantasy and thinking of writing some of it yourself. Hey, all you need to do is write about sword, spears, and spells, right? Yes, but there is more to it. If you are going to write military fantasy, you better put some emphasis on the military part of it. […]
On the Table: Wizard Kings from Columbia Games
Friday , 5, August 2016 Tabletop Games, Wargames 7 CommentsI have gotten a tremendous amount of play out of Wizard Kings since picking it up a couple of weeks ago. As I’ve posted pics of this on social media, I’ve gotten feedback from people that are underwhelmed by it, so let me explain real quick here what’s going on with that and why this […]
Short Reviews – Hellhounds of the Cosmos by Clifford D. Simak
Friday , 5, August 2016 Book Review 8 CommentsHellhounds of the Cosmos by Clifford D. Simak appeared in the June 1932 issue of Astounding Stories. After the first couple pages into Hellhounds of the Cosmos, I did not expect to be as completely blown away by weird the way I was in its second half. Hellhounds starts out with what seems to be […]
Defining Fantasy Role-Playing Games the Tunnels & Trolls Way
Thursday , 4, August 2016 Appendix N, Tabletop Games 12 CommentsGamers are a tough crowd in general, but role-players are particularly hard to get along with. The number of shibboleths and sacred cows in the rpg scene, the emperors with no clothes, the punditry and smack talk, the number of ways to give and take offense, the outright character assassination and demagoguery that goes down– […]
SENSOR SWEEP: Creepy Elves, Prattian Magic, Dangerous Demonization, and Soaked-In Misogyny
Wednesday , 3, August 2016 Sensor Sweep 6 CommentsAppendix N (Save Versus All Wands) Top Ten Reasons Why I Hate Drow — “Ideally, all elves should be dangerous, mysterious and perhaps even somewhat creepy. Creating a new category of elves that are almost defined as such, effectively means that elves in general (all the other elves) will not be dangerous, mysterious and somewhat […]
Set up a scenario out on the table, and you have a scenario. Replay it a few times and it becomes familiar as you grow to understand that scenario. Tweak it, and you begin to understand the pieces which are present. Take control of the pieces and learn to use them after identifying them… Now […]
David Pulver on How RPG Settings Killed the SFF Canon
Tuesday , 2, August 2016 Appendix N, GURPS 7 CommentsDavid Pulver is among the most prolific role-playing game designers around, and when his name appeared side by side with Steve Jackson and Sean Punch on the covers of the Fourth Edition GURPS core books, his status as one of the leading developers in the field was secured. He also witnessed first hand the trends […]
SUPERVERSIVE: Star Trek Beyond, the spoilerific review.
Tuesday , 2, August 2016 Superversive, Uncategorized 11 CommentsI grew up in a Star Trek house. A lot of my early memories involved classic Star Trek reruns and watching The Wrath of Khan the way my niece watches Frozen. I can remember the excitement of seeing Star Trek‘s future when TNG was new, and being mildly horrified and fascinated when my Dad told me the new Enterprise had kids […]
If Castalia House has only managed to whet your appetite for commentary on old style science fiction and fantasy, then this is your lucky week. Not just one, but two new “Appendix N” series are underway! One is by long time book reviewer H.P. who blogs at Every Day Should be Tuesday. Here’s what you […]
Guest Post by Brian Renninger: Running First Edition Oriental Adventures, Session 2
Monday , 1, August 2016 Tabletop Games 1 CommentPlay report 2: 1st Edition AD&D, and 1st Edition Oriental Adventures. Summary: Kung Fu barbarians of the north. After last week’s TPK, I was all ahoo with what I would do this week. I considered allowing a reboot back to the Daimyo’s castle and have the characters discover a different threat to the north. But, […]