Now that I’ve been gone for a month I’ll attempt to get back on this horse. I spent some time last month working on an Encounter Critical adventure which I was to run at Three Rivers Con. For whatever reason, the turnout at 3RC was light and no one wanted to play Encounter Critical. I’ll keep that adventure in my bag of tricks to offer at future conventions. I’ll also develop a sign-up sheet, complete with a description of the adventure, which may help establish players who are committed to playing my adventure at the appointed time.
After reading The Eye of Argon I was breezing through Gurps for Dummies. I found the book fascinating but , half way through, I realized I was reading a book for a game I neither played or intended to play in the foreseeable future. I opted to return to reading fiction and working through the 501 Must Read Books list. I’ve acquired many of the Sci-fi books on this list over the past few years so, starting with A by author, I read Brain Wave by Poul Anderson. The book made me mad. Brain Wave was Anderson’s first novel and he makes writing appear as child’s play. The style is like other classic Sci-fi writers, Sturgeon, Van Vogt and Simack. The book actually made me sweat psychologically; I was concerned for my health and the well being of the characters in Anderson’s book. Brain Wave, I suppose, is a Science Fiction Psychological Thriller. Needless to say it was a good read, as good as any I've read on the 501 list. It was written in 1958 so my initial description of Animal Farm on Acid was a bit premature but it's still an illustrative description.
After reading The Eye of Argon I was breezing through Gurps for Dummies. I found the book fascinating but , half way through, I realized I was reading a book for a game I neither played or intended to play in the foreseeable future. I opted to return to reading fiction and working through the 501 Must Read Books list. I’ve acquired many of the Sci-fi books on this list over the past few years so, starting with A by author, I read Brain Wave by Poul Anderson. The book made me mad. Brain Wave was Anderson’s first novel and he makes writing appear as child’s play. The style is like other classic Sci-fi writers, Sturgeon, Van Vogt and Simack. The book actually made me sweat psychologically; I was concerned for my health and the well being of the characters in Anderson’s book. Brain Wave, I suppose, is a Science Fiction Psychological Thriller. Needless to say it was a good read, as good as any I've read on the 501 list. It was written in 1958 so my initial description of Animal Farm on Acid was a bit premature but it's still an illustrative description.
Upon finishing Brain Wave I was tempted to read one of the other P. Anderson books which crowd my shelves but I stuck with my 501 Must Read Books List and dove into Hothouse by Brian Aldiss. So far this book is really good and I can certainly see where this book may have been an influence on role playing games like Gamma World and Encounter Critical. Hothouse is set in the far future when Earth is literally a hothouse. Plant life has evolved or mutated to dominate ecology and biology and only five species of animals survive in this environment of killer plants.
I’ve had lots of fun with my other blog this June but I really don’t intend for the brief personal comments to interfere with the more creative work of an vaguely rpg related blog. I began work on a longer description of Tarnsman of Gor and that blog entry is still in the rough draft stage.
Last week I went to Colorado for my vacation and visited Mile High Comics and picked up a few more books for my ever expanding collection of ‘80s Marvel Comics. I also found Vol. 3 of the Ray Bradberry graphic novels at Capitol Hill Books in Denver. Oh yeah, I found a book I had never heard of; Gary Gygax Cyborg Commando. I found this at a bookstore called Mutiny Now on South Broadway in Denver.
That's some of the stuff I did outside of the 9 to 5 this past month. Now I'm gonna get on with doing what I'm doin'. Have a good one and see ya soon.
