Next Gen and Me

This week marks the 25th anniversary of the launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. I was a junior in college at the time, at a height of my gaming and fandom endeavors that I wouldn't regain for a long, long time. And now, here was a reincarnation of my beloved Star Trek. I couldn't wait, and collected scraps of information from various television previews (Entertainment Tonight, etc.) on VHS so I could study them. Later on it would become...

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A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore Print Version Now Live!

At long last, the print version of A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is now live and available for sale over at the BRW Games store at RPGNow.com. It is available both as a hardcover and softcover, comes in at around 135 pages, and features artwork by the incomparable old-school gaming artist Brian "Glad" Thomas.This book is a supplement, intended for use with other games such as Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, etc. It contains...

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Myth & Magic Players Guide PDF Now Available

The good guys over at New Haven Games have finally released the pdf version of their Myth & Magic Players Guide. For those who haven't been following it, Myth & Magic isn't quite a 2E clone; they describe it as 2nd edition "revised and updated". I have the pdf (I got in on the kickstarter, and so got an advanced copy) and it's really a neat treatment. As they say, it's not 100% faithful to the original 2E rules, but they know what they're...

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Free Resources Links Working Again

Off to the right, you'll see a section labeled "Free Resources". For the past couple of weeks, the links have been dead, since Mediafire decided to respond to an automated letter from some schmuck in France who claimed that all of my files infringed on the copyright for the television show "The Tudors".My thinking is that the outfit in question simply scanned the whole of the web for blogs that mentioned The Tudors and then automatically flagged any file linked on that page as a possible violation, whether or not it had anything whatever to do...

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Why Do People Hate The Lord of the Rings?

This is a question that's been rattling around in my head for a couple of years, now. I know in some quarters its the case that Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings film trilogy isn't well-regarded. It's an attitude I can certainly accept, but don't really understand, as I love both the books and the films, and have read and watched both dozens of times each.With the upcoming release of the first movie in The Hobbit trilogy, the question has come up...

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New Hobbit Trailer

I am a big fan of the Peter Jackson LotR films, and now I'm starting to really get revved up for the three Hobbit movies. This looks incredibly good. I'm beginning to think he could even turn the Silmarillion into something interesting and watchable! (Although he'd probably turn it into... what? A dozen film...

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Final Proofs are Here!

And don't they look dandy!I did notice one thing on the hardcover version that will need fixing, and there's been some feedback on the pdf version that I'm incorporating into the print versions, so these aren't final, perfect copies. But, they're good enough to show that the files are working, everything is coming out as it should with no huge errors in formatting, and we're ready to go.So!I'll upload the final fixes tomorrow, and if all goes well...

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Seeking Recommendations for Miniatures

I'm considering getting back into using miniatures for my tabletop RPG game, and was wondering if my faithful readers could help with some recommendations. I've found a few manufacturers online, but nothing beats personal experience and first-hand experience. What I'm looking for specifically:25mm scale (not 28mm)No slotted base; I want the things to stand on their own without a plastic base under itA wide variety of both monsters and adventurer-typesReasonable pricing under US$4 per figure (maybe I'm just spoiled by buying 15mm, or I'm still living...

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Why the Flanaess is Relatively Empty

There has been quite a bit of talk over the last couple of days about the fact that the Flanaess is relatively empty in terms of population density compared to historical norms from Europe. Even when later designers consciously beefed up the populations of both cities and countries, they were still "howling empty" wildernesses compared to 13th century England or Germany.The answer, I think, is found in the original purpose for the World of Greyhawk...

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Never Forget

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Artists RFQ

Well, now that the hard copy publication of A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore is almost upon us (just waiting to get the second proof copy, and then off we go!), the time has come to look towards the print publication of the full Adventures Dark and Deep™ rules.This is going to require an insane amount of art, especially the Bestiary.The Bestiary alone is going to require over 800 pieces of art (one for each creature; this is going to be (pardon the pun) a work of art, and is going to clock in at around 450 pages when it's done. That doesn't include...

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Can Fandom Change Society?

I came across this interesting video today from PBS:On the whole, I found the concept to be pretty good, but their choices of fandoms to focus on made the whole thing seem weirder than it actually is. Bronies? Transformers slash fiction? Really? Did we need to focus on that so much? No mention of the thousands of hours of charity work that Trek fan organizations like Starfleet International do? Nothing about how television shows like Big Bang Theory and the wild success of Comicon have made fandom mainstream? I wish they had given a broader...

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46 Years Ago Today

Today marks the forty-sixth anniversary of the debut of the original Star Trek. I've written before of how Trek influenced my formative years; it was my gateway into fandom, and thence to gaming. Whether it was television, movies, books, games, conventions, fan clubs, or action figures, Star Trek was an inextricable part of my life and remains so to this day.So thank you, Great Bird of the Galaxy, for giving me literally countless hours of enjoyment over the years.And as a special bonus, here is a link to download the Trek fan-film in which I was...

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It's Here!

The first proof copy of A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore (that's the softcover in the picture; apologies for the flash glare-- it's a hasty picture). One formatting issue needs to be fixed (that's why we do proofs), but the books should be ready for purchase very soon n...

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Gaming Out of the Rut

At our last Greyhawk game I had something very different lined up for my players. Rather than yet another expedition into the ruins of the Castle of the Mad Archmage, I wanted them to get a little more invested in the setting itself. I had hoped to introduce some of the notable NPCs that make Greyhawk so very special, wedge them out of the rut they'd trodden between the Blue Dragon Inn and the entrances to the castle dungeons.They had already encountered...

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Historical Themes of the Flanaess

There are several "themes" that run throughout European history. The rise and fall of the Roman Empire arguably created the concept of Europe itself. The multi-century struggle between England and France, which began as early as the Norman Conquest in 1066 and continued through the fall of Napoleon in 1815. The rise of Christianity under the Catholic church, and its eventual disintegration after the Protestant revolution. The struggle between Christianity...

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