In writing my review of The Game Wizards, I came to a horrifying realization – I hadn’t given my thoughts on the other previous sequel by Jon Peterson to Playing at the World that I’d read – The Elusive Shift. Considering that all three of these books kind of form a full narrative, I realized I really needed to rectify that situation. So I’m rectifying that situation.
Continue reading “The Elusive Shift: Book Review”
Dragons of Winter Night, as a novel, runs into the problem of adapting what was we think of it into just a trilogy of books – a bunch of material has to be skipped over. We start off after the retrieval of the Hammer of Karass and the re-unification of Dwarven society (which would later be covered in Dragons of the Dwarven Depths), with that kind of setting the tone somewhat for how the show comes out.
Continue reading “Dragons of Winter Night: Book Review”
This week I’m rounding out my book reviews with what might be the proto-Game-Isekai novel, written in the ’70s by Andre Norton.
Continue reading “Quag Keep: Book (Video) Review”
If I was going to describe the modern “Isekai” genre in brief, I’d describe it as “Game-based another world fantasy.” It’s not just fantasy where a protagonist is whisked to another fantastic world from ours like with the John Carter of Mars novels, or on the anime front with El-Hazard and Magic Knight Rayearth. This is fantasy where the characters are explicitly in a world that draws inspiration to games from gaming – sometimes by drawing the characters or their psyches into an actual game (ala Sword Art Online or Log Horizon), or a world which uses the language of RPGs like with Konosuba or Grimgar: Ash and Illusions. I would argue that if not the first of these, then one of the first of this particular genre – and was done in the ’70s by a woman.
Continue reading “Quag Keep: Book Review”
This week I have a review of an art book covering the history of Dungeons & Dragons from the start of the game to now.
Watch the video…
Once Sokal Keep has been cleared, now you’ve gotten the attention of the government of New Phlan – as the room behind the counselor opens up, and Junior Counselor Cadorna asks to meet with you. Cadorna is one of the few NPCs in the game with a truly unique character portrait – one that wasn’t created with the portrait system that you would have used … Continue reading GBP: Pool of Radiance – Part 3 (Kuto’s Well)
After you’ve cleared the Slums – in terms of quest goals, you have a few new options. On the one hand, you can continue inland to Kuto’s Well. On the other, you can now travel out to Sokol Keep out in the bay around the city. With this comes a bunch of new quest goals as well. One quest goal tasks the party with spying … Continue reading GBP: Pool of Radiance – Part 2 (Sokol Keep)
Recently, in addition to the games that I’ve been playing for my usual Let’s Plays, I’ve also been playing the original Pool of Radiance as part of a planned playthrough of the Forgotten Realms Gold Box games. Since I can’t really engage with something without getting analytical, I figured I might as well give my thoughts on it as I go through the games. Further, … Continue reading GBP: Pool of Radiance – Part 1 (Arrival and The Slums)
A while back, I reviewed G1: The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, an adventure that launched AD&D’s first real adventure path, and had some really interesting adventure design concepts. The other two adventures in the series – G2: The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and G3: The Hall of the Fire Giant King, are much more conventional dungeon crawls, so they’re worth discussing together. Continue reading “Adventure Review: G2 & G3 – The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl & The Hall of the Fire Giant King”
When I first read Dragons of Autumn Twilight, back in Middle School, I hadn’t read much fantasy fiction, and IÂ definitely hadn’t watched much anime. This year, I decided to revisit the Dragonlance trilogy, with what I know now about Fantasy fiction, with a more mature perspective as a reader, and having watched (according to MyAnimeList) 66.5 days worth of anime between when I discovered Anime … Continue reading Book Review: Dragons of Autumn Twilight
Keep on the Borderlands is a lot of people’s first experience with a pre-written D&D adventure. While it isn’t the first published D&D adventure, or even the first 1st Level D&D Adventure, it’s one of the first ones with a drawn out map and wilderness environment combined, and many people’s first D&D adventure – including mine. Since the first time I’ve played the adventure, I’ve played many more RPGs in a multitude of systems, and had an opportunity to GM a couple times. So, I’m revisiting the adventure. Continue reading “Adventure Review: B2 – The Keep on the Borderlands”
Probably one of the first sourcebooks put out for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons was Deities and Demigods, a book with a collection of beings that would provide something for your Cleric to be, well, a cleric of. However, it doesn’t really hold up very well, particularly compared to later deity books for later editions of AD&D and D&D. Continue reading “Book Review: Deities and Demigods (1980)”
