Review: Thief by Matthew Colville

9/10 if you like fantasy fiction9/10 if you liked the first book but found it to be a dreary slog at times Finally got around to reading the sequel to Priest and I absolutely tore through it from cover to cover in a weekend. Its a treat to have fast paced writing, frequent chapter breaks

Incentive; or, How to Kill Your Game

Begrudging thanks to the inflammatory social media content mills that brought this excellent post back to my attention: https://lukegearing.blot.im/against-incentive. One core idea from Luke’s thoughts, of gameplay thriving within the grey areas of the game itself, crystallized my own intuitions of what makes a game worth playing regardless of its mechanical merit. I think its

GrandExchange.exe for .Dungeon Remastered (GLoGTOBER 2023)

Thanks to semiurge for the prompt (A list of, or generator for, cursed items that are more interesting than a -1 sword.) and glasscandles for organizing GLoGtober! See the parent post for my GLoGtober arrangements: here This is also an entry for the .Dungeon Remastered Jam: itchio The Cursed .EXE I have prepared a short interactive HTML page on itch.io

Review: Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson*

*and the first 150 pages or so of Deadhouse Gates 9/10 if you like fantasy, worldbuilding, wide casts of characters and settings, and content that ranges from morally ambiguous to horrific. 4/10 if you like spending time not reading this sprawling epic of a series. (though its a better way to spend alone time than

Review: Priest by Matt Colville

9/10 if you like fantasy and antihero hardboiled fiction7/10 if you don’t (I don’t like hardboiled apparently) Wears inspiration on its sleeve Black Company, Gawain & Green Knight, D&D, Malazan (I’m less sure of this because its my follow-up in progress read), Lord of The Rings (in a linguistic/worldbuilding sense) Quick Definition for Hardboiled:“Hardboiled fiction

My god, its full of glog

GLoGtober is back, time to roll some dice and read some prompts furnished by Glass Candles and Company! 7 Challenges are presented so 7 dice will go forth to face them. And the results are, in reading order, 3-5-4-2-6-6-1. Fine distribution. Here are the table results: Hm, I think this will work out just fine

Kleptas: Monster Inspired By The Modern Bestiary

Kleptas Progenitor of frogmen, fishmen, shrimpmen, eelmen, squidmen, et al. This all female* species resides in slippery cracks and crevices near seaports, laketowns, and caveburghs. Their primary interaction with sapients is via their colonies of offspring and their periodic need to acquire genetic material. During times of particular ecological distress (or boredom), they will exit

Ahrakoon: Monster Inspired By The Modern Bestiary

Ahrakoon Goblins, orcs, ogres [GO&O] and other demihumanoid rodent-rabble are commonly known for their unhygienic practices and crowded dwellings. Their apparent lack of selfcare is suavely remedied by entrepreneurial Ahrakoon.  Once the GO&O have endured parasites, plugged pores and caked detritus, they will find a small family unit of these affable folk near their doorstep.

Pandemonium Fungus: Monster Inspired By The Modern Bestiary

Vaguely OSR D&D monster inspired by the “unexpected and magnificent” animal kingdom showcased in The Modern Bestiary [Joanna Bagniewska]. Pandemonium Fungus The affliction of cozy shires and industrious towns alike, fungal pandemonium spends 17 years dormant before striking a fresh generation of human adults. Children are not commonly inflicted. Indiscriminate strains have been outcompeted by

Fuel for the Fire #1

Wherein I list the variety of digital and physical creative material that kept my brain juices at a rolling boil. Also sometimes my short thoughts on the merits of the material. This is as much for the sake of my ever bloating google tabs and my memory write buffer as it is for the blog.