Avatars in your Game
I’m not a huge fan of the murder hobo; I don’t know too many people who are. Every so often you have the option to really stick it to the murder hobo by saying the peasant he just killed was the arch priest of the Beggar God. That’s one of my personal favorites. And the next peasant that’s killed is the arch priest of the rival church of the Beggar God. That’s my second favorite.
Blast from the Past: The Book of Swords Series
The man behind the books
Author Fred Saberhagen. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Author Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007) must have been a busy person. Not only was he the creator of the Berserker series of science fiction tales, the Dracula sequence of novels, the Books of the Gods series, and a number of video games, but he was also the man responsible for The Book of Swords series which consisted of 11 novels. He even wrote another trilogy, collectively known as Empire of the East, which was vaguely related to The Book of Swords due to the events happening in the same world as The Book of Swords but thousands of years earlier.
Rogue: The Most Dangerous Person in the Room
Do you have a rogue in your ranks? Lots of players chose the rogue because they want that key moment, that time to shine.
The general combat classes always get that. The fighter with swinging swords and chopping battle axe, the monk hitting twenty times per round, the barbarian raging through a horde of orcs. Even many of the other classes get to shine in combat, like the wizard and his trusty fireball or the cleric with her flame strike. And do not get in the way of a druid in bear form.
DMing a Killer Mystery Arc in D&D
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Mysteries are one of my favorite things in tabletops. It’s like a big puzzle to solve, but with talking to people and assessing their motives. Sometimes there’s even a little larceny involved. I have to admit, I’m a fan. Then again, I have to be, I write mystery novels.
In D&D, mysteries can be really difficult to run with spells in the game like “Detect Thoughts” and “Zone of Truth.” The thing is, the characters have to know whose mind to read before they can be effective with either of these things, and even the highest level wizard can only do it so many times a day.
Fantasy writers deserve not to be pigeonholed
The Pillars of the Earth (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Writers of history
A while back I was in an online forum filled with fellow writers. The majority of writers and authors on the site were thriller and romance writers … the “acceptable” genres.
While there I noticed a posting about historical fiction, asking what are some favorite historical novels and short stories. I started salivating because I could think of tons of historical fiction books and tales I love. Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove comes to mind, as does Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. James Clavell’s Shogun is also a favorite, as are Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind and Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. I also thought of Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire novel and Louis L’Amour’s The Walking Drum. Just about anything written by Alexandre Dumas springs to my mind as a favorite.
The Big Bad, Comic Book Style
Have you ever read the Drizzt Do’Urden books? Who hasn’t, right? Do you remember Pasha Pook? He was a smarmy guy who double-dealt among everyone, even his own employees. I mean, who double deals Artemis Entreri?
And he was a punk.
Is fiction writing the last unexplored frontier?
Once upon a time, just about anyone could be an explorer. Little more than a hundred years ago, there were still places on this Earth which had not been reached, or had been reached by very few. In those days, just about any man or woman could set out to trek off into unknown territories. True, major expeditions were funded by governments or business interests, as they are today, but the average person could still sign up with such groups or with a minimum of money set out on their own.
RPGs and Comic Books: The Recurring Villain
You know what I don’t like about superhero movies? The “big bad” is always getting whacked. I mean, how do you kill Doctor Doom or the Red Skull? The cool thing is that, just like in the comics, they can always come back.
High fantasy vs. Sword & Sorcery: Basics of fantasy literature
J.R.R. Tolkien
A brief look at fantasy
During the last century, numerous authors and editors and fantasy fiction fans have pondered the different sub-genres of fantasy literature. Today the numerous sub-genres come in many shades, but there was a time not so long ago when the majority of fantasy literature was less diverse.
Who Wants to Live Forever?
It’s not just an awesome Queen song. It’s about wanting to play more than one character in your life, or giving meaning to the life of your character.
Hey, guys, Professor Bill here, and I want to talk about one of my favorite parts of role playing … choosing my own death. It doesn’t have to be emo, there are many reasons why you would want your character to die. Maybe you want to play a different character. With me, I figure that a character can only be known for but so many accomplishments. I mean, sure you’ve slain that ancient red dragon, but lots of people in many games around the world have, too.
So you know fantasy literature? Prove it with this quiz
Have you read plenty of fantasy literature over the years? Do you think you know your stuff? If so, take the quiz below to find out just how much you really know or don’t know. And don’t worry, as you can find the quiz answers here.
Fantasy Literature Quiz Answers
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For the original quiz, check out this link.
- A ring
- The Gray Mouser
- 1923
- The Sword of Shannara
- Author Ursula K. Le Guin
- Seven
- Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger
- Cimmeria
- A butterfly
- The Knights of Solamnia, or The Solomnic Knights
- A giant turtle named Great A’Tuin
- Kahlan Amnell
- Florida
- Technically seven, though there are more lands than the Seven Kingdoms within Westeros
- The Creator
- Dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden
- Wednesday’s glass eye
- Azoth, eventually known as Kylar Stern
- The Golden Compass
- Twelve
- Assassin
- The Oath of Peace
- Tad Williams
- Magician
- Garion
- Stormbringer
- Fuchsia Groan
- Lirazel, the King of Elfland’s daughter
- Urban fantasy
- Mercury
In fiction, ‘darkness’ is in the eye of the beholder
As a fiction writer, I tend to mostly work in the fields of fantasy and horror. I don't consider my fantasy works especially dark, nor do I consider most of my horror to be overly gory. But readers as individuals have different tastes and wants in...
Comic report: Saga, Volume One
Saga: Marko and Alana
Saga (written by Brian K. Vaughan with artwork by Fiona Staples) is just one of those comics you need to read. The perfect combination of action, romance, drama and inappropriateness is definitely what makes this a story to indulge in. It’s basically like an epic space odyssey of a couple, Alana and Marko, two separate alien races (both super hot, horned, winged aliens with attitude, peoples) escaping the life they lived as military personnel to two opposing racial forces in a war between the planet Landfall (Alana’s home) and its satellite wreath (Marko’s native moon). In order to start anew with their newly-birthed (from forbidden love) child, Hazel, they are forced to flee in secret and hopefully escape the never-ending war between their two races, which they want nothing to do with. This world, mind you, is full of magic and strange scientific advancements similar to recent Star Wars movies, so you see a lot of creepy and strange characters which makes it intriguing and makes you want to keep reading!
Comic Book University: YouTube for the super hero in all of us
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="326" class="zemanta-img"] The Incredible Hulk #1 (May 1962). Cover art by Jack Kirby and Paul Reinman. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption] I don’t normally do a shout-out for a solitary YouTube channel, especially one that is fairly new, but the channel called Comic Book University...
