Tuesday, July 19, 2011

I have been published again.

A fellow blogger who's read a great deal more than I, Christian of Destination Unknown, produces a rpg 'zine One Square Equals Five Feet and he was kind enough to include an frpg adventure starter which I designed in a recent issue.

The adventure is simply titled The Forgotten Ruins and is intended for use with Labyrinth Lord or other Basic frpgs. I've posted it over at Scribd.
I intend to add more details about the creatures which in habbit the ruins, add a random encounter table and such. Perhaps I can get this done this week?

For now, enjoy it as ya like.

Monday, July 18, 2011

The Imperial Stars by E. E. "Doc" Smith


Doc Smith is often credited as a major influence upon George Lucas and the characterization in The Imperial Stars could easily be developed into movie or television personalities. The Imperial Stars is one of Smith's later works, published in 1976, co-written with Stephen Goldin. The tone of this tale reminds me of the works of Alfred Bester. Like Bester's The Demolished Man, The Imperial Stars reads like an old pulp mystery or espionage plot set in a sci-fi or advanced technological society.

Just a plan ol’ quick and fun read and it's avaliable from Paperback Swap.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

The Crystal Prince by K. H. Scheer

Where did June go? Well, let me attempt to resurrect the ol' Polyhedral Dicebag with a few notes this week. In my absence I've been doing my usual amount of reading, one short novel a week. I am beginning to feel that I've read enough pulp sci-fi for quite some time but I still have plenty of these old books on my shelves. Here's one I enjoyed recently.


"The Crystal Prince is a subplot of the Perry Rhodan series and Rhodan's name is never mentioned in this tale. This fact certainly doesn't detract from the adventure packed into the 131 pages of pulpy Sci-Fi. In fact, this brief novel contains the entire plot of all six of the Star Wars films, an odd fact since the book was published in 1977.

Atlan, the Crystal Prince is subjected to a life threatening test after which his "second brain" is activated. The second brain is the source of psychic abilities and recipients of these powers traditionally wear flowing white robes. Atlan is also in exile because his uncle usurped the empire from Atlan's father, thus Atlan is given an ancient weapon to help protect himself from his uncle's secret police.