Now that I've been gone for a month

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.

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.

The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis

I have just spent the last week, or so, reading The Eye of Argon and it was the most difficult thing which I have ever read. It was not challenging from an intellectual or conceptual approach, it was a painful trap of typographical errors and misplaced modifiers. I dare to compare The Eye of Argon to James Joyce’s Dubliners, stories about drunks, swindlers, unhappy young brides and generally miserable people. The Eye of Argon was as painful to read as Joyce’s close up of cultural misery.

Here's a typical passage from the tale;
“Taking hold of the rodent around its lean, growling stomach with both hands Grignr pried from his crimson rent breast, removing small patched of flayed flesh from his chest in the motion between the squalid slack claws of the starving beast."

This sounds to me like the “growling stomach” has “both hands” and a “chest” is “in a motion between squalid slack claws of the beast.” The modifiers and the sentence structure make me cringe but, on the other hand, I wish I had the stomach to emulate this style, I might become the next Lionel Fanthrope.

The Eye of Argon is available as a Google Book but only seven, or so, pages of the introduction are available through Google. But that’s enough because the introduction contains the “publication history” or The Eye of Argon. There are a few web sites dedicated to this wondrous work and a Wikipedia entry but I am convinced that this whole tale is a hoax. I’m not certain when it started, it may have begun in 1970 as reports claim or the hoax may have begun in the year 2000, but I’m almost certain this work of fiction is a brilliant and elaborate, internet perpetrated, hoax. I’m also convinced that the cover photo of the Google edition of this book is a photo of Old Faithful or a geyser very near that famous frequently flowing fellow.

While Joyce challenges us to investigate our surroundings and origins more closely, The Eye of Argon has taught me not to investigate bad pulp fiction too closely. From now on, I’ll be inclined to believe internet reports of really bad pulp fiction and avoid the work in question. (Unless the work in question was spawned from the mind of Mr. L. Fanthrope.) The Eye of Argon is actually available in a print now and I have to wonder if the typos have been corrected in the print edition, it might be handy to own a properly edited edition of this nighmare.

A Tale of Two book purchases; part 2

Book purchase 1; Hackmaster Player’s Handbook and Hackmaster Game Master’s Reference$12.99 + $3.99 shipping from e-bay. The player’s handbook is a bit more beat-up than I’d like but I did pay 60% off the retail price, including shipping.


Book purchase 2; The Hacklopedia of Beast, vol. 2 from a local used book store: $2.00.



I’ll offer comments about those old copies of The Space Gamer soon. Now, to come up with a plot line wacky enough to use with Hackmaster, oh yeah, I found Little Keep on the Borderland at the used book store earlier this year!

Next at the Polyhedral Dicebag; I offer my two cents on The Eye of Argon.

RPG Brain Storm Questionnaire

Last week I got an idea to give my game group some random questions to use in generating plots for rpgs. I’m not out or plot ideas but I thought the questionnaire would be fun and, perhaps, inject a bit of creative thinking into our group. This is certainly no insult to my group, they are all great fun and I’m often guilty of running out of creative ideas while we’re sitting at the gaming table. Here are the questions which I presented along with their responses and my comments about the responses.

1. What type of character have you always wanted to play but have never gotten the opportunity? (Any genre or setting is acceptable.)

Reverse Dungeon, a mob boss, a young Jedi or a paladin. A hybrid character of Conan, Han Solo, Boba Fett, Dracula and Elvis.

Comments: Yeah, my guys are a bunch of jokesters but these are some creative ideas.


2. What book and, or movie contains elements which you would like to use in an rpg?

Dune, the Mad Max series, Hellraiser, King Kong, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Robin Hood, Reservoir Dogs, Land of the Lost and Raiders of the Lost Ark

Comments: I haven’t seen three of these films but they all sound like good ideas.

3. What rock band and, or song would you like to see used within an rpg plot?

Michael Bolton; the whole collection (a joke)
Rush (Another joke, I think based on the recent film Fanboys.)
The Ramones (This is an idea I could work with.)

4. What historical event or period would you enjoy in an rpg?

Victorian, 1930s, Prohibition, South Central L. A. circa 1990, The future as envisioned by the past.

Comments: I like the 1990’s L.A. idea and “the future as envisioned by the past,” brings to mind the novels of A.E. Van Vogt, Doc Smith and Poul Anderson.

5. Insert any additional comments here:
I want to level like a Mofo and; Brought to you by Carl’s Jr.

Thanks to by pals in the OSP for answering my random nonsense with their own brand of nonsense. It’s entirely likely that this first questionnaire will lead to a second set of questions and I may get around to developing some of these ideas and suggestions in 2011.

Guest Book Review of Mercedes Lackey’s The Fairy Godmother

One day, a few weeks ago, I found my wife, Sally, searching around her bookshelves. I immediately ask her if she had run out of things to read. Her response was the “uh huh” which I anticipated. I remembered that I had purchased a copy of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and began searching through my piles of books. I found Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and two other books for her to choose from. One of the books was The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey and this was the book she chose to read first. Once she finished reading the book I got the idea that she could do a guest book review for the ol’ blog and composed the following questions for a brief interview.

Q. What genre would you consider The Fairy Godmother?
A. It’s fantasy but not what I would consider romantic fantasy. It is really a modern twist on fairy tales. The setting is called the Five Hundred Kingdoms and the main character, Elena, is ushered into “the tradition” of the Fairy Godmothers. Elena was supposed to be the Cinderella of her kingdom and became a Fairy Godmother initiate when this plan went astray.

Q. How long did it take you to read this novel?
A. Two weeks.

Q. As a point of reference, would you compare the style of The Fairy Godmother too Shrek?
A. Yes, the characterization is similar.

Q. Would you recommend The Fairy Godmother for male readers?
A. Yeah, sure.

Q. Was this book better than an Archie comic?
A. Yes

Q. Was the book better than a Hellboy comic?
A. No

Q. What are you reading now?
A. Wild Fire by Christine Feeham

Q. Would you do another guest review for the Polyhedral Windbag in the future?
A. Sure

Thanks to Sally for this brief view into this novel which we received through a book trade we established on Paperback Swap dot Com.

A tale of two book purchases

This is actually the tale of three book purchases from two ends of the same subject.
Book purchase #1, Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, Player’s Handbook = $14.99.
Shipping = 3.99.
Knowing I bought this book for 30% less than the cover price = priceless.

I’ve been shopping for the Fourth Edition Player’s Handbook for a while. I wanted to get a copy of the book so I can form my own informed opinion of this new edition of the game. I can’t believe this edition of the game is broken or think it’s the bee knees until I’ve read the rules and devised my own opinion and owning a copy of the book will facilitate this process.

Book purchase #2, Fantasy Role Playing Games and Mahars of Pellucidar by J.E. Holmes.



Fantasy Role Playing was $12.49 with shipping and Mahars of Pellucidar was less than $5.oo. I remember that my college library had a copy of Fantasy Role Playing Games. I also remember looking through the books in those days too. I'm pretty sure I never read this book back then because I was too concerned with trying to pass Biology, Anthropology and Speech. I also didn't have the money to buy Dr. Holmes' book at that time. I believe that the original cover price is actually $12.50. This was in the late Eighties and we were still playing 1st edition AD&D. Of course, that is what I still play today too, when my group isn't playing Mutant Future or Encounter Critical.

I should have a tale of two book purchases, part two, to write about pretty soon. It's an even better deal than the 4th ed. Player's Handbook. I think it will be around 75% off the cover price after shipping. I also hope to have a guest book review posted soon too.

Old School Files

I've been digging through my old gaming material with the intent to use this material to create a generic system adventure. Yesterday, I found this old character record sheet which I had created for 1st edition AD&D. I've edited it a bit to share with my blog-o-sphere faithfuls. I think this file should prove to be useful as a record sheet for retro clone and weird fantasy gaming.

Generic RPG Character Record