So, I was going through the online collection of Sage Advice clumns at http://jgrimbert.free.fr/add2/advice/?order=id&debut=30 today, when I cam across this question from DRAGON #33...
"Q: Although the Players Handbook does not include them in the description of the Raise Dead spell, may elves and half-orcs be raised from the dead?
A: No, they cannot. They do not have souls, and therefore a wish must be used to bring them back."
o_O
Elves and half-orcs do not have souls.... okay, I can MAYBE wrap my head around elves (MAYBE), but half-orcs have no souls? What? Would someone care to explain this existential dilemma to me?
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
N is for Newbies
(YAY! I made it through "Hell Week" without missing a post!
... what's that? I will be out and about two more days next week?
Sigh...)
I am at the point in my gaming career now where, living in an isolated small town, I don't have an especially large pool of available players. So far, the only playing I get done is when I come back to the big city, and play one-offs with my old friends. Hence, I've been thinking of how I can get a new generation of gamers started in my small town.
One of the problems I find with newbies today is lack of focus. THey have become so used to the constant action of video game RPGs, that they expect a similar experience with a PNP RPG. And THAT... is not something I am willing to do. My games have always been part story-telling opportunity, part game. The story is just as important as the game itself, as far as I'm concerned. So, my struggle is trying to make the game interesting enough to keep their focus, without moving along at a breakneck speed which sacrificies some of the descriptive elements. (And yes, this is why I ABHOR 4th Edition D&D... any time they TELL you to handwave over all the stuff between encounters as unimportant, I start getting antsy. Some of the most fun I've ever had in games has been the little vignettes in between the action. Also, if I WANTED video game mechanics, I would PLAY video games. End rant.)
The other thing I find is, they have very little patience for learning new mechanics. That's why I have gravitated back to B/X D&D / LL for campaigns... rules lite. I suppose if I REALLY wanted to make it simple, I could go for MicroLite or something like that, but at least I have some familiarity with B/X. Conversely, I don't think I could ever run a Greyhawk campaign with B/X rules.... it's just not the same flavour. Using B/X makes for a much more simplistic set-up, so to me, that means a much more simplistic style of campaign. Very black and white, not much shades of gray. Villains are VERY BAD PEOPLE.... heroes are very GOOD people, not the tortured anti-hero. Maybe once I have them trained through D&D, I can start working in AD&D elements, and switch to Greyhawk. For now, though... sandbox it is.
I think the idea of focusing on making the experience meaningful for noobs helps in a way. It makes the "just in time" planning concept I talked about before much more meaningful - there's no point in making grand, elaborate plans if the characters won't get to them because they're still learning the simple mechanics. It also makes sandboxes a much better idea, I think.
Hopefully, I'll get to put this into action some day soon. I have a few candidates coming up through the ranks as possible players in the near future... one very adventurous, very smart little boy in grade 5, and another brainiac girl in grade 5 who is a complete Star Wars NUT (I think she's read my copy of the STAR WARS ENCYCLOPEDIA cover to cover 3 times... she can QUOTE TEXT VERBATIM from that book), which means I might be thinking about how to apply these ideas to a STAR WARS d6 campaign in the near future....
... what's that? I will be out and about two more days next week?
Sigh...)
I am at the point in my gaming career now where, living in an isolated small town, I don't have an especially large pool of available players. So far, the only playing I get done is when I come back to the big city, and play one-offs with my old friends. Hence, I've been thinking of how I can get a new generation of gamers started in my small town.
One of the problems I find with newbies today is lack of focus. THey have become so used to the constant action of video game RPGs, that they expect a similar experience with a PNP RPG. And THAT... is not something I am willing to do. My games have always been part story-telling opportunity, part game. The story is just as important as the game itself, as far as I'm concerned. So, my struggle is trying to make the game interesting enough to keep their focus, without moving along at a breakneck speed which sacrificies some of the descriptive elements. (And yes, this is why I ABHOR 4th Edition D&D... any time they TELL you to handwave over all the stuff between encounters as unimportant, I start getting antsy. Some of the most fun I've ever had in games has been the little vignettes in between the action. Also, if I WANTED video game mechanics, I would PLAY video games. End rant.)
The other thing I find is, they have very little patience for learning new mechanics. That's why I have gravitated back to B/X D&D / LL for campaigns... rules lite. I suppose if I REALLY wanted to make it simple, I could go for MicroLite or something like that, but at least I have some familiarity with B/X. Conversely, I don't think I could ever run a Greyhawk campaign with B/X rules.... it's just not the same flavour. Using B/X makes for a much more simplistic set-up, so to me, that means a much more simplistic style of campaign. Very black and white, not much shades of gray. Villains are VERY BAD PEOPLE.... heroes are very GOOD people, not the tortured anti-hero. Maybe once I have them trained through D&D, I can start working in AD&D elements, and switch to Greyhawk. For now, though... sandbox it is.
I think the idea of focusing on making the experience meaningful for noobs helps in a way. It makes the "just in time" planning concept I talked about before much more meaningful - there's no point in making grand, elaborate plans if the characters won't get to them because they're still learning the simple mechanics. It also makes sandboxes a much better idea, I think.
Hopefully, I'll get to put this into action some day soon. I have a few candidates coming up through the ranks as possible players in the near future... one very adventurous, very smart little boy in grade 5, and another brainiac girl in grade 5 who is a complete Star Wars NUT (I think she's read my copy of the STAR WARS ENCYCLOPEDIA cover to cover 3 times... she can QUOTE TEXT VERBATIM from that book), which means I might be thinking about how to apply these ideas to a STAR WARS d6 campaign in the near future....
Friday, April 15, 2011
M is for Miniatures
Originally, I was going to talk about my favorite class, magic-users, but lately, miniatrues have been on my mind.
I know that this hobby of ours developed out of old-style tabletop wargaming. But, for me, I've never really used miniatures EVER when playing RPGs. The only time I've ever used figs is to play WH40K, which is a whole other barrel of fish (that being said, I have a whole hell of a lot of bait from that kettle I need to sell.... maybe W will be for WH40K Figure sale? 8)
The only thing I ever appreciated miniatures for was painting them. When I first started, my painting was VERY primitive... unprimed lead figures, painted with Testor's model paints. Over the years, as my exposure to WH40K showed my the error of my ways, I started to paint more figs, but really, other than Space Marines, the only thing I can ever remember really painting was a Blood Bowl team of Dark Elves, and the odd Warhammer Fantasy goblin figure.
Later, with the advent of Heroclix, and prepainted plastic figures, I see how miniatures really made a comeback. Sadly, they turned it into a collectibility thing, but really, what did you expect? In a way, I miss some of those old figures. I recently came across two packages of old Grenadier AD&D figs (Elementals I and Djinn & Efreeti), as well as an actual, honest to goodness Grenadier WIZZARDS & WARRIORS blister (the Dungeon 01 pack, which has about 8 figures in it), and I am torn between selling them ASAP on eBay, and actually painting them. I also know of a sizable supply of old RAFM lead figs, waiting to get purchased.
I guess what I'm asking is... just how important are minis to your old-school campaign? I know they're kinda required for 4th Ed (what with all it's intricacies), but has anybody out there used miniatures regularly in an old school D&D / AD&D game, and found them to be extremely useful? Also, is it possible to find those new plastic ones cheap and plenitful enough to be a good modern stand in? Maybe I just never got this, and it puzzles me.....
I know that this hobby of ours developed out of old-style tabletop wargaming. But, for me, I've never really used miniatures EVER when playing RPGs. The only time I've ever used figs is to play WH40K, which is a whole other barrel of fish (that being said, I have a whole hell of a lot of bait from that kettle I need to sell.... maybe W will be for WH40K Figure sale? 8)
The only thing I ever appreciated miniatures for was painting them. When I first started, my painting was VERY primitive... unprimed lead figures, painted with Testor's model paints. Over the years, as my exposure to WH40K showed my the error of my ways, I started to paint more figs, but really, other than Space Marines, the only thing I can ever remember really painting was a Blood Bowl team of Dark Elves, and the odd Warhammer Fantasy goblin figure.
Later, with the advent of Heroclix, and prepainted plastic figures, I see how miniatures really made a comeback. Sadly, they turned it into a collectibility thing, but really, what did you expect? In a way, I miss some of those old figures. I recently came across two packages of old Grenadier AD&D figs (Elementals I and Djinn & Efreeti), as well as an actual, honest to goodness Grenadier WIZZARDS & WARRIORS blister (the Dungeon 01 pack, which has about 8 figures in it), and I am torn between selling them ASAP on eBay, and actually painting them. I also know of a sizable supply of old RAFM lead figs, waiting to get purchased.
I guess what I'm asking is... just how important are minis to your old-school campaign? I know they're kinda required for 4th Ed (what with all it's intricacies), but has anybody out there used miniatures regularly in an old school D&D / AD&D game, and found them to be extremely useful? Also, is it possible to find those new plastic ones cheap and plenitful enough to be a good modern stand in? Maybe I just never got this, and it puzzles me.....
Thursday, April 14, 2011
L is for Lekon
( I was going to reproduce the character sheet for the one character I've had to survive the tests of time, Lekon, but since I'm away for an inservice, and I forgot to put it in the laptop bag, that will not be happening. Instead, I will simply talk about him in geenral terms, and his genesis, or at least, what I can remember. 8)
Lekon Bodgarn, 16th level arch-mage (under 1st edition AD&D rules)
STR 10
INT 18
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 12
CHR 10(-ish)
Lekon was, and remains, the only long-term character I ever played. He survived NUMEROUS adventures, between a large variety of campaigns. At first, I simply played him like an average guy, who was a little bewildered at his ability to use magic. Over time, however, I started to play him smarter. He was never afraid to take part in combat, but would usually fire off a few offensive volleys of spells first, wade into combat for a round or two (even when he was only weilding a Dagger +1), then drop back to provide cover support for the cleanup. As he got to higher and higher a level, he adventured more and more. He was never the "pointy-hat" kind of mage. He was the "dressed like everyone else" kind of mage, wearing Cloaks of Protection and Boots of Speed to get him out of tight situations. While he doesn't have a TON of magic items, he does have everything a good mage would need... high-level Ring of Protection, Staff of the Magi, Ring of Wizardry, Boccob's spell component pouch and spellbook, and a half-decent dagger. [At one point, he also possessed Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightingale. On one hand, this was acquired at the tail end of my gaming days, in a one-on-one Monty Haul campaign, who's sole goal was the get ahold of this artifact. While I don't claim on the last character sheet I had to possess this anymore (I changed it to a Prison of Zagyg instead), he still bears the ill results of his encounter with it (aged 10 years, hair turned white] Lekon cut his teeth as a low-level mage with some high-level friends, going through the Isle of Dread as a first level mage. He was later put through the varuious Against the Giants modules, as well as the Secret of Bone Hill. I remember he was actually killed during the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (a mishap tryiing to figure out how to work one of the fire arms), but was in the company of a cleric of high enough level to cast Raise Dead. Later on, an encounter with the kuo-toa in D1-2 left him at death's door with one hit point, after a critical hit to the left thigh svered his hamstring (damn DM made critical hit tables). He survived, but still bears a limp to this day.
Towards the end, Lekon finally settled down. I paid out the vast amounts of gold to have hium build a stronghold, a tower, in the mountains surrounding the Duchy of Geoff. In hsi last cmapaign, we figured out that a small settlement had arisen around hsi tower, with Lekon acting as a kind of unlanded gentry to the peole and demi-humans of the area. He also has some giants as friends, as we ran through a heavily-modified LIBERATION OF GEOFF as his last adventure, and he befriended some giants (stone, I think) that lived in the area (it involved helping get rid of a dragon). He also had a memorable adventure that made a permanent enemy of Set, the Egyptian God of Serpents (don't ask).
Now, Lekon sits in blissful retirement. If I ever get another Greyhawk campaign running, I guarantee that near the borders of Geoff is the tower of a powerful mage, that the party may one day find itself working for....
Lekon Bodgarn, 16th level arch-mage (under 1st edition AD&D rules)
STR 10
INT 18
WIS 12
DEX 16
CON 12
CHR 10(-ish)
Lekon was, and remains, the only long-term character I ever played. He survived NUMEROUS adventures, between a large variety of campaigns. At first, I simply played him like an average guy, who was a little bewildered at his ability to use magic. Over time, however, I started to play him smarter. He was never afraid to take part in combat, but would usually fire off a few offensive volleys of spells first, wade into combat for a round or two (even when he was only weilding a Dagger +1), then drop back to provide cover support for the cleanup. As he got to higher and higher a level, he adventured more and more. He was never the "pointy-hat" kind of mage. He was the "dressed like everyone else" kind of mage, wearing Cloaks of Protection and Boots of Speed to get him out of tight situations. While he doesn't have a TON of magic items, he does have everything a good mage would need... high-level Ring of Protection, Staff of the Magi, Ring of Wizardry, Boccob's spell component pouch and spellbook, and a half-decent dagger. [At one point, he also possessed Queen Ehlissa's Marvelous Nightingale. On one hand, this was acquired at the tail end of my gaming days, in a one-on-one Monty Haul campaign, who's sole goal was the get ahold of this artifact. While I don't claim on the last character sheet I had to possess this anymore (I changed it to a Prison of Zagyg instead), he still bears the ill results of his encounter with it (aged 10 years, hair turned white] Lekon cut his teeth as a low-level mage with some high-level friends, going through the Isle of Dread as a first level mage. He was later put through the varuious Against the Giants modules, as well as the Secret of Bone Hill. I remember he was actually killed during the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks (a mishap tryiing to figure out how to work one of the fire arms), but was in the company of a cleric of high enough level to cast Raise Dead. Later on, an encounter with the kuo-toa in D1-2 left him at death's door with one hit point, after a critical hit to the left thigh svered his hamstring (damn DM made critical hit tables). He survived, but still bears a limp to this day.
Towards the end, Lekon finally settled down. I paid out the vast amounts of gold to have hium build a stronghold, a tower, in the mountains surrounding the Duchy of Geoff. In hsi last cmapaign, we figured out that a small settlement had arisen around hsi tower, with Lekon acting as a kind of unlanded gentry to the peole and demi-humans of the area. He also has some giants as friends, as we ran through a heavily-modified LIBERATION OF GEOFF as his last adventure, and he befriended some giants (stone, I think) that lived in the area (it involved helping get rid of a dragon). He also had a memorable adventure that made a permanent enemy of Set, the Egyptian God of Serpents (don't ask).
Now, Lekon sits in blissful retirement. If I ever get another Greyhawk campaign running, I guarantee that near the borders of Geoff is the tower of a powerful mage, that the party may one day find itself working for....
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
K is The Keep On The Borderlands
This is probably my all-time favourite module. I remember getting it as part of my red box B/X Basic set, and I remember reading the hell out of it. Oddly enough, although it served as a major inspiration, I didn’t actually play it for years. It’s kind of perverse just how many squandered role-playing opportunities I had in my youth, although in my defence, I did get to play most of the classic AD&D modules (except the one I always WANTED to play, Tomb of Horrors). In any event, the Keep on the Borderlands is still the gold standard of modules, by which I judge all other modules as well as the things I create myself. I think the best thing about the Keep wasn’t necessarily even the dungeon itself, but just the possibilities that the keep itself presented. I think the best example of what this module could be actually came out of something pretty dismal – the TSR line of Greyhawk novels. These were the ones that came out much later, based on iconic modules like The Keep On The Borderlands, Against The Giants, White Plume Mountain and others. I managed to get my hands on a few of these novels, and found most of them to be… disappointing. (Actually, let me qualify that… they were AWFUL. I only managed to read Keep, Against The Giants, and…. I think I read parts of White Plume?). However, the Keep book actually had SOME redeeming qualities. Namely, it did a good job of covering what adventures around the keep could be, what with detailing the encounters with bandits and lizard folk living around the keep, as well as the interaction between the castellan and the party in getting them to explore the caves. Although I was left ultimately unsatisfied by the book, I at least see what its possibilities were.
Even today, every time I start a new campaign, I always find a place to drop the Keep into it. It *is* the ultimate dungeon for me, and it’s so easy to go in and out of with all those entrances, unlike a megadungeon, where backtracking your way out would be difficult at best. I also like all the built-in intrigue that the module has. One thing I was NOT fond of, however, was the Return to the Keep on the B orderlands. Trust WOTC to screw something awesome up. Although I did like some of the little touches (like the Cynidicean NPC), ultimately, they took some great, and made it crappy. Although I have stolen some ideas from that module, I tend to only use it along with an article I found somewhere (Canonfire?) called “Fixing the Return to the Keep on the Borderlands”. It’s the only thing that can make it palatable.
Even today, every time I start a new campaign, I always find a place to drop the Keep into it. It *is* the ultimate dungeon for me, and it’s so easy to go in and out of with all those entrances, unlike a megadungeon, where backtracking your way out would be difficult at best. I also like all the built-in intrigue that the module has. One thing I was NOT fond of, however, was the Return to the Keep on the B orderlands. Trust WOTC to screw something awesome up. Although I did like some of the little touches (like the Cynidicean NPC), ultimately, they took some great, and made it crappy. Although I have stolen some ideas from that module, I tend to only use it along with an article I found somewhere (Canonfire?) called “Fixing the Return to the Keep on the Borderlands”. It’s the only thing that can make it palatable.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
J if for Just In Time Planning
Originally, I was going to make this entry a piece of short fiction, but since I’m already running behind this week, I decided to pick another J topic. Maybe I’ll get back to that at another time….
Instead, I think I will take this opportunity to talk about the “just in time” school of D&D planning. I must admit, this is an idea that I only recently came across in my return to gaming. Back in the day, when I used to game much more regularly, I found that I was always engaged in LOTS of preparation ahead of a gaming session. In some respects, I think at times, I put perhaps too MUCH preparation into getting ready for a session… I always wanted the gaming experience to be the best I could make it, and as such, I tended to plan meticulously. Even if it was something as simple as reading and rereading the module I was going to be using, and making copious “author’s additions” to make sure I understood exactly how it fit into my campaign, I did it. The concept of “just in time” preparation seemed completely anathema to me. Part of the whole “gaming process” was the DM prepared… that’s just the way it was.
Did it make for a better campaign? In all honesty, I don’t think so. I can’t recall a single occasion when I said after a session, ”Damn, I’m happy I spent all that time prepping”. (And trust me, the irony that now, as an English teacher, I have never said, “Damn, I’m happy I spent all that time prepping” is not lost on me.) I think part of the whole idea of prepping was the fact that there is some small part of me that fancies that I’m a writer, so the idea of writing copious notes to prepare for a session was much like me “writing” my own module. In a way, it’s kind of funny that I felt the need to explain everything that could possibly happen in minute detail – I mean, after all, I was the guy coming up with all this stuff, wasn’t I? Did I not trust my memory or something?
One of the things I’ve learned from the OSR blogosphere is that, it’s OKAY to wing it. A lot of the campaigns I read about on these pages are very prep-lite. I’m happy I took the opportunity to take part in last year’s One-Page Dungeon Contest, because it got me thinking about how simplicity is its own virtue sometimes. I also appreciate things like Michael Curtis’ STONEHELL DUNGEON, because it follows the same Idea – very minimal initial explanation of the dungeon, and then expanding on the detail afterwards. Even though, I still have trouble at times not “telling a story” with the very descriptions of rooms or encounters in adventures I detail. I think it falls back to the fact that, so often, the campaigns I would run would collapse under the weight of their own expectations after a few sessions, so I started to write all the detail into things, because I would never get the chance to expand this detail in an actual session. However, as I continue to journey deeper and deeper into the blogosphere, and think more and more seriously about trying to get a game restarted, I think I am coming to realize that maybe I should just go description lite. After all, that is a big part of the reason why I chose to start planning using the simple B/X rules… why make things needlessly complicated, when any game I run will likely be populated by newbies who will be learning the game system as we play?
Instead, I think I will take this opportunity to talk about the “just in time” school of D&D planning. I must admit, this is an idea that I only recently came across in my return to gaming. Back in the day, when I used to game much more regularly, I found that I was always engaged in LOTS of preparation ahead of a gaming session. In some respects, I think at times, I put perhaps too MUCH preparation into getting ready for a session… I always wanted the gaming experience to be the best I could make it, and as such, I tended to plan meticulously. Even if it was something as simple as reading and rereading the module I was going to be using, and making copious “author’s additions” to make sure I understood exactly how it fit into my campaign, I did it. The concept of “just in time” preparation seemed completely anathema to me. Part of the whole “gaming process” was the DM prepared… that’s just the way it was.
Did it make for a better campaign? In all honesty, I don’t think so. I can’t recall a single occasion when I said after a session, ”Damn, I’m happy I spent all that time prepping”. (And trust me, the irony that now, as an English teacher, I have never said, “Damn, I’m happy I spent all that time prepping” is not lost on me.) I think part of the whole idea of prepping was the fact that there is some small part of me that fancies that I’m a writer, so the idea of writing copious notes to prepare for a session was much like me “writing” my own module. In a way, it’s kind of funny that I felt the need to explain everything that could possibly happen in minute detail – I mean, after all, I was the guy coming up with all this stuff, wasn’t I? Did I not trust my memory or something?
One of the things I’ve learned from the OSR blogosphere is that, it’s OKAY to wing it. A lot of the campaigns I read about on these pages are very prep-lite. I’m happy I took the opportunity to take part in last year’s One-Page Dungeon Contest, because it got me thinking about how simplicity is its own virtue sometimes. I also appreciate things like Michael Curtis’ STONEHELL DUNGEON, because it follows the same Idea – very minimal initial explanation of the dungeon, and then expanding on the detail afterwards. Even though, I still have trouble at times not “telling a story” with the very descriptions of rooms or encounters in adventures I detail. I think it falls back to the fact that, so often, the campaigns I would run would collapse under the weight of their own expectations after a few sessions, so I started to write all the detail into things, because I would never get the chance to expand this detail in an actual session. However, as I continue to journey deeper and deeper into the blogosphere, and think more and more seriously about trying to get a game restarted, I think I am coming to realize that maybe I should just go description lite. After all, that is a big part of the reason why I chose to start planning using the simple B/X rules… why make things needlessly complicated, when any game I run will likely be populated by newbies who will be learning the game system as we play?
Monday, April 11, 2011
I is for Inspiration
(Editor's note: damn... a few people doing the same topid. Oh well, great minds think alike... 8)
I know everyone always talks about the infamous Appendix N. Like everyone else, I have had a ton of inspirations, for a variety of games. I’m just going to riff off a whole list of books, movies, TV shows and movies that have inspired me, in no coherent order.
Books
- Robert E. Howard’s Del Rey omnibus series
- Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser books
- FRAGILE THINGS, ANANSI BOYS and AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman
- Terry Brooks’ THE WISHSONG OF SHANNARA, The Scions of Shannara Trilogy, and the first three books of the Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold! Series
- Glen Cook’s Black Company series
- Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Rifles series
- J.R.R. Tolkien, especially THE HOBBIT and THE SILMARILLION
- The first six Dragonlance books by Hickman and Weis
- William Gibson
- George Alec Effinger’s Marid Audran trilogy
- Mick Farren, especially NECROM, VICKERS, THE ARMAGEDDON CRAZY and THE LONG ORBIT
- John Ostrander’s run on SUICIDE SQUAD
- Mike Grell, especially GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS
- John Byrne and Chris Claremont’s first run on THE UNCANNY X-MEN
- Any Timothy Zahn or Michael Stackpole Star Wars novel (admission: I have a bookshelf in my room, which has 6 shelves on it. ALL of them hold STAR WARS novels (well, the last shelf holds my Star Wars d6 RPG stuff, and my Star Wars Encyclopedia). Up until earlier this year, I had EVERY Star Wars novel released (not the young adult or kid ones though), including the three Daley Han Solo books, the three Lando Calrissian books, and Splinter of the Mind's eye, and most of them in hardcover. I also have the complete run of Marvel's Star Wars comics (well, I DID... I sold them, but still have *cough* e-versions *cough* of them. I am a bit of a Star Wars junkie. Lately, I have realized, however.... most of the new Star Wars novels are SHITE. Too many based on video games, or just generally poorly written stories. I no longer want to buy shitty books. I have not read all of them yet, either... I read all the Rebellion era stuff (except for a couple that have come out lately), and I've read all the NJO stuff. I started reading the Clone Wars era stuff, but I have yet to find one I like. I haven't read any of the two timelines that come after NJO, even though I have all of them)
- The THIEVES WORLD novel series, especially the first three
- Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, and the HARD BOILED mini-series
- Kevin Smith’s GUARDIAN DEVIL run on Daredevil
-
TV Series
- MIRACLES
- THE X-FILES
- MILLENNIUM
- THE CAPE (it's WAY better than HEROES. Sadly, I have a feeling it's being cancelled....)
- LOST
- BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (both versions)
- SAMURAI JACK
- JUSTICE LEAGUE / JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED
- AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES
- MANIMAL
- MISFITS OF SCIENCE
- FREAKS AND GEEKS
- ANCIENT ALIENS
- IN SEARCH OF
- MOST HAUNTED
- ROBIN OF SHERWOOD
- THE FLASH
- BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (well, mostly the Paracelsus arc)
- DARK SKIES
- SPACE: 1999
- SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND
- THE PRETENDER
Movies
- STAR WARS trilogy
- INDIANA JONES trilogy (THE CRYSTAL SKULL, not so much…)
- BRAVEHEART
- THE SEVEN SAMURAI
- UNDER SEIGE
- ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
- TRUE GRIT
- UNFORGIVEN
- PALE RIDER
- THE DARK KNIGHT
- ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES
- GHOST DOG
- SNEAKERS
- CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
- JURASSIC PARK
- BLADE RUNNER
- STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
- STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
- STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
- MEMENTO
- TRUE ROMANCE
- KILL BILL, VOL. 1 & 2
- SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
I know everyone always talks about the infamous Appendix N. Like everyone else, I have had a ton of inspirations, for a variety of games. I’m just going to riff off a whole list of books, movies, TV shows and movies that have inspired me, in no coherent order.
Books
- Robert E. Howard’s Del Rey omnibus series
- Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser books
- FRAGILE THINGS, ANANSI BOYS and AMERICAN GODS by Neil Gaiman
- Terry Brooks’ THE WISHSONG OF SHANNARA, The Scions of Shannara Trilogy, and the first three books of the Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold! Series
- Glen Cook’s Black Company series
- Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Rifles series
- J.R.R. Tolkien, especially THE HOBBIT and THE SILMARILLION
- The first six Dragonlance books by Hickman and Weis
- William Gibson
- George Alec Effinger’s Marid Audran trilogy
- Mick Farren, especially NECROM, VICKERS, THE ARMAGEDDON CRAZY and THE LONG ORBIT
- John Ostrander’s run on SUICIDE SQUAD
- Mike Grell, especially GREEN ARROW: THE LONGBOW HUNTERS
- John Byrne and Chris Claremont’s first run on THE UNCANNY X-MEN
- Any Timothy Zahn or Michael Stackpole Star Wars novel (admission: I have a bookshelf in my room, which has 6 shelves on it. ALL of them hold STAR WARS novels (well, the last shelf holds my Star Wars d6 RPG stuff, and my Star Wars Encyclopedia). Up until earlier this year, I had EVERY Star Wars novel released (not the young adult or kid ones though), including the three Daley Han Solo books, the three Lando Calrissian books, and Splinter of the Mind's eye, and most of them in hardcover. I also have the complete run of Marvel's Star Wars comics (well, I DID... I sold them, but still have *cough* e-versions *cough* of them. I am a bit of a Star Wars junkie. Lately, I have realized, however.... most of the new Star Wars novels are SHITE. Too many based on video games, or just generally poorly written stories. I no longer want to buy shitty books. I have not read all of them yet, either... I read all the Rebellion era stuff (except for a couple that have come out lately), and I've read all the NJO stuff. I started reading the Clone Wars era stuff, but I have yet to find one I like. I haven't read any of the two timelines that come after NJO, even though I have all of them)
- The THIEVES WORLD novel series, especially the first three
- Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, and the HARD BOILED mini-series
- Kevin Smith’s GUARDIAN DEVIL run on Daredevil
-
TV Series
- MIRACLES
- THE X-FILES
- MILLENNIUM
- THE CAPE (it's WAY better than HEROES. Sadly, I have a feeling it's being cancelled....)
- LOST
- BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (both versions)
- SAMURAI JACK
- JUSTICE LEAGUE / JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED
- AVENGERS: EARTH’S MIGHTIEST HEROES
- MANIMAL
- MISFITS OF SCIENCE
- FREAKS AND GEEKS
- ANCIENT ALIENS
- IN SEARCH OF
- MOST HAUNTED
- ROBIN OF SHERWOOD
- THE FLASH
- BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (well, mostly the Paracelsus arc)
- DARK SKIES
- SPACE: 1999
- SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND
- THE PRETENDER
Movies
- STAR WARS trilogy
- INDIANA JONES trilogy (THE CRYSTAL SKULL, not so much…)
- BRAVEHEART
- THE SEVEN SAMURAI
- UNDER SEIGE
- ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST
- TRUE GRIT
- UNFORGIVEN
- PALE RIDER
- THE DARK KNIGHT
- ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES
- GHOST DOG
- SNEAKERS
- CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON
- JURASSIC PARK
- BLADE RUNNER
- STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
- STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME
- STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
- MEMENTO
- TRUE ROMANCE
- KILL BILL, VOL. 1 & 2
- SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
