User blogs

Tonight! At Inspired Unreality! We have a topic! Fantasy and Science Fiction!

I read a lot and I also enjoy some fantasy and science fiction movies and tv shows. I have played in a couple of SF RPGs but, of course, fantasy RPGs are my main thing. There's also a lot of Fantasy and SF in other media, games, graphic novels, blogs, vlogs, etc.

Here's the place where I plug Megan's and Kim's Buffy podcast, Flunking The Written.

https://www.flunkingthewritten.com/

Yes this is a broad topic. Everyone is welcome. Bring your own topic. All Fantasy and SF is on topic.

For example, FKR - Free Kriegsspiel Revolution, would definitely be on topic. Here's a Follow Me And Die post about FKR, a rules light OSR RPG.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4278

Like I said, I read a lot. Here's my current and some recents I can recommend. With links! Woohoo!

I am currently reading The Inheritance Trilogy. I'm on book 3. This is an earlier fantasy story by N. K. Jemisin who won three Hugos in three consecutive years each for a book in the Broken Earth Trilogy. I read that too. I like the Inheritance Trilogy better without thinking it's actually better. Just more to my taste.

She posted The Inheritance Trilogy Non-Wiki which includes her notes made while writing the books. She has licensed these notes CC BY-SA-NC so yes, you can repost these notes or work from them under some restrictions. More at this link.

https://nkjemisin.com/the-inheritance-trilogy-non-wiki/

I love Russian Folklore so "Deathless" by Catherynne M. Valente was just like it was written for me. I mean, Baba Yaga is in it and everything.

"Deathless is an alternate history novel ... combining the Russian fairy tale The Death of Koschei the Deathless with the events and aftermath of the Russian Revolution."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deathless_(novel)

Nancy Springer writes YA Fantasy but in her Enola Holmes mysteries she writes an alternative history of a fictional world. Enola Holmes is Sherlock Holmes' younger sister, somehow never mentioned by Arthur Conan Doyle. Each book is a novella, a quick read, and absolutely delightful.

https://murder-mayhem.com/enola-holmes-books-nancy-springer

"For centuries mystical creatures of all description were gathered into a hidden refuge called Fablehaven to prevent their extinction. The sanctuary survives today as one of the last strongholds of true magic. Enchanting? Absolutely. Exciting? You bet. Safe? Well, actually, quite the opposite."

Yes, I do love reading YA Fantasy. And I do recommend "Fablehaven".

https://susandennard.com/2011/09/18/fablehaven-a-book-recommendation/

I just finished "The Chosen and the Beautiful" by Nghi Vo, a retelling of "The Great Gatsby" in a world with magic, demons, demoniac, and paper coming to life. This is an exquisite work. One of the best crafted novels I have ever read (and I read a lot). It's also very entertaining.

Megan said she knows she loves a book when she wants to reread it as soon as she finishes it. As soon as I finished this book I wanted to reread "The Great Gatsby" and then reread "The Chosen and the Beautiful".

https://booksbonesbuffy.com/2021/06/10/the-chosen-and-the-beautiful-by-nghi-vo-review/

So in case you didn't catch onto the circle I'll explain it. I plugged Megan's Buffy podcast at the top. At the bottom I refer to Megan again and then provide a link to Books, Bones, and Buffy. Pretty clever, huh?

Join us tonight to discuss these stories or others.

Inspired Unreality, open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. More info here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Please forward this email to your Fantasy and SF loving friends. Also post this link to your website, blog, or preferred social media.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/831

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Memorial Day Inspired Unreality and we're gonna talk about Science Fiction and Fantasy. It's the first Monday of September so we've got a topic.

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been there's more info here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

In two weeks on September 20 we will be chatting with Robert S. Conley. The topic will be differences between writing for classic D&D vs 5e. Please join us then to chat with Robert S. Conley. And tonight Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Gamer+ now has a tumblr.

https://gamerplusdotorg.tumblr.com/

Robert S. Conley wrote about Chainmail Reprints and the Harn Kingdom Hardbacks on his Bat In The Attic blog.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4233

I found this.

"Flash Lingo: A Thieves Cant Dictionary" is the most comprehensive Thieves Cant glossary ever assembled. With over 2,200 entries, this volume has been compiled from historical resources and edited to specifically support fantasy role-playing games. More importantly, it is designed to bring the lexicon of Thieves Cant to life in your campaign world, as an aid for both players and DMs alike. It’s also just a damn enjoyable read!

Free download at DriveThruRPG.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4234

So, how's gaming in your neck of the woods? It's been going great here.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Welcome to Inspired Unreality open game chat, tonight at 9:00 PM Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been to Tenkar's Tavern there's a link for you here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

First on the agenda tonight will be working on Caper's song of reckless spending, a favorite of proprietors in gambling houses everywhere Caper goes. So far I've got something about the wheel goes round but we're going to hammer it out tonight and I need your help.

Last week Alan joined us and we talked a bit about SF and Fantasy books and a bit about writing, discussing our current projects. Alan is working on his Ember module called "Mine". I have run it once at ARRPGCon and once online and it was fun both times.

https://gamerplus.org/user/Alan

He will tell you about The Chronicles of Ember here.

https://chroniclesofember.com/2018/04/10/welcome-to-ember/

I am reading Rebecca Roanhorse. Her novel, "Black Sun", is a Hugo finalist this year and deserves to win. (Although I haven't read any of the other finalists yet. They probably all deserve to win.) She also writes YA Fantasy stories based on Navajo mythology. More here.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4199

And I posted another chapter for my book, "Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Using Tech Creatively" called Backup Overview and Strategy. Yeah, I know. Boring. But essential!

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/806

Come to Inspired Unreality tonight to help Caper finish his song of reckless spending. One more page in Caper's Songbook, soon to be a minizine resource for bard's everywhere.

Spread the word.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we are talking about books and stories. The opening topic will be The Origins Of Fantasy. Fantasy is the well spring that D&D grew out of. Do fantasy stories predate civilization? Or is there an era in literature when fantasy was born?

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info go here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Last week Ari and Caper worked on Caper's Song Book. And we started on a list of songs for the book. Then we wrote this.

Song of perception

tin tin aree tin tin aroo
look about look about could be you
jump about jump about one and two
tin tin aree tin tin aroo

To be sung by the whole party twice through to increases alertness and perception.

Here's a link to my post about Caper's Song Book.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/798

Carl Heyl linked to the Conan Artbook Kickstarter from the Troll Lords!

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4186

I added a chapter to my book in progress, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Using Tech Creatively. The new chapter is about Web Promotion.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/801

What have you been reading? Join us tonight on Inspired Unreality and let us know. What have you been writing? Post a link. Do you use tech creatively? Comment on my post.

Please share this newsletter with your gaming friends.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us tonight at Inspired Unreality open game chat. Last week we talked about books. Before that Witch's Chicken Scratch, a cypher witches use to write down their recipes for teas and potions. And when we last left Ari and Caper they were in the Milyagon Witch's kitchen drinking love potion. The night before that the brownies had crowned Ari with a flowery garland.

Inspired Unreality open game chat is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been we have an invite for you here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

What will we be discussing tonight? Nobody knows. Because, like Megan, we do what we want. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

I posted, "We had a good chat last night about Science Fiction and Fantasy literature starting with a discussion about Science Fiction as a late nineteenth and twentieth century phenomenon where Fantasy literature encompasses all of literature going back to the earliest written words. Now they are often indistinguishable. Then we discussed the dystopian trend in Science Fiction. The Golden Age (thirties and forties) saw mostly optimistic science fiction stories but in the second half of the twentieth century starting with the New Wave through today there has been a darker trend with many dystopian and post apocalyptic stories. Then closing the chat we each discussed our first experiences in Science Fiction."

What are your first experiences with Fantasy and Science Fiction? Join the discussion here.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4153

ZDL shared a post about how we can let the kids improve our urban landscape.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4157

If you have ideas for our Fantasy and Science Fiction discussion post them here in the Related To Geeks Book Club group.

https://gamerplus.org/groups/28

Please post your links, game ideas, art, etc. to Gamer+. We want to know what you're doing. (Ok, that's not creepy at all.)

Stay in touch.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us tonight at the Inspired Unreality Open Game Chat where we will discuss Science Fiction and Fantasy literature. Soon to be a monthly feature at Inspired Unreality.

We've already got some discussion going in my announcement thread.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4145

We don't mind controversy over at Gamer+. As long as it's controversy about gaming. Everybody's got their own old school. Mine didn't start until the early nineties. Most old schools are older than mine.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/782

I added another post to my Setting Up A Twitch Studio series. Documentation. I try to teach by example. So, if you like to read documentation.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/785

This series of articles has turned out to be broader in focus than I thought they would be and the ideas discussed pertain to any technical creative endeavor. I need to take a big top down view and decide where I'm going with this.

And here are our twitch streams.

https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia

https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

Send me your links or post them to Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight! On Inspired Unreality. We will be chatting about games, or playing games, or maybe chatting about books, science fiction and fantasy literature. What we've read and what we like. Books. Games. Chat.

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been there's an invite here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

ZDL posted Deep Dive: OSR Critique about her actual experience in the OSR world when it was just called D&D.

"To establish my credentials, I have been playing RPGs of all kinds since 1977.  My first exposure to the genre was the 1977 "Blue Book" edition and I have backfilled experience with the original books, not to mention gone forward into both branches of D&D (Advanced and what would later become the Cyclopedia).  I played through the explosion of creativity in the '80s, witnessed the rise of story games (playing many of them, though not the White Wolf line of Storyteller games—I hated those), and continued through to the present day where I play intensely story-oriented games (FATE, Spark, Mythic, etc.) as well as some OSR or OSR-alike games (most notably Mazes & Minotaurs).  I am emphatically not a young-un telling grandpa what's what.  I'm one of the grandparents saying what actually was."

And she has some opinions. As always, a good read. In case you also have opinions there's a comment section.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/782

RickStump joined the Related to Geeks Book club group. Megan and I did the podcast for a year and then went on to bigger and better things. (Hello Flunking The Written and twitch) I still read every day and would love to have a monthly book discussion. So, starting next week and continuing the first Monday of every month the opening topic at Inspired Unreality will be science fiction and fantasy literature with frequent forays into SF&F movies and games.

https://gamerplus.org/groups/28
https://anchor.fm/flunking-the-written
https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia
https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland

I posted a new photo gallery, The Masks Of The Zuni. If you are needing images of a witch doctor, shaman, or other all around weirdo these are public domain. There's even a bizarro Hairy Larry.

https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/104

See you tonight on Inspired Unreality open game chat. Next week, books. Post some pics. Join in on the OSR discussion. At Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight, on Inspired Unreality, we continue our quest into feyland.

Ari and Caper were joined by Droggin the dwarf and Quinthalas the elf on their quest into feyland. The Milyagon witch has a message for King Groads, who is only a king on his own property. We meet our friends the fairies from our previous quest to Wilkin Woods and they don't have much use for the pretend king. But we still get along with them fine and they do show us the way. We are standing outside his gate hoping to complete our quest and hurry back home. Feyland is nice ... but dangerous.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4093

Join us every Monday night at 9:00 Central for Inspired Unreality open game chat held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invitation for you here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

ZDL has big news. "The greatest epic fantasy movie put to video has finally been released!" Baelin (Rowan Bettjeman), a simple background NPC in the video game, Skycraft, has been walking the same route for as long as he can remember.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4094

I wrote a blog post about Setting Up A Twitch Studio - The Big Idea. "It's all Megan's fault. When she set up https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia Vivian and I started watching. Before that I knew it was a popular site for live gaming but twitch flew under my radar. Once I saw what Megan was doing and I started to understand how twitch worked, and how it can be used for videos that are not about gaming, I became interested."

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/761

Are you on twitch? Have you watched a good video or read a book? Have you ever been to Feyland? Let us know on Gamer+.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Here's four webcomics that I like and some of them even have something to do with gaming.

I don't like rom com movies much. In fact I don't like movies much. I prefer my TV in small doses. But I do read a lot of coming of age fantasy and science fiction which is kind of close to rom coms. Especially "The Wheel Of Time" which I am definitely planning on rereading, all 14 volumes.

But it turns out that I like rom com webcomics. I guess the dosage is about right.

"Questionable Content" is alternative history science fiction. It's present day but in the recent past Hannelore's dad discovered true AI and built it into robots. So it's a rom com with robots. (Shades of Isaac Asimov) It's actually my current fav and it turns out I must have started it in the middle because when I went to episode 1 to link here I hadn't read it. But there is an AI robot right at the start. Plus rom com. It is a lot different than the more recent episodes but I'm restarting at the top and you can too.

https://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=1

Oh yeah, it's drawn by J. Jacques. And it's 5 days a week.

Dumbing Of Age is a College Webcomic by David M. Willis. This is my latest fav and it's actual contemporary fiction rom com. It has more about cartoons than about games although D&D does get an occasional mention. Big on superheroes too with an actual superhero character who is actually just a shy girl with tendencies towards violence.

7 days a week. Yaaaaaay!

https://www.dumbingofage.com/2010/comic/book-1/01-move-in-day/home/

The absolute best webcomic ever is all about D&D with in jokes right from the first episode. The Order Of The Stick is about an adventuring party drawn as stick figures. If you haven't already read this it's a treat. The only bad thing about it is that it's a weekly so I save it for my weekend reading. It's by Rich Burlew.

https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0001.html

And my new find is Gunnerkrigg Court. It's also in a school setting but so far not a rom com. Definitely fantasy and I'm not far enough into it to tell you much more. Except that I like it so far. Not sure of the publishing schedule but the art is great and it's drawn by Tom Siddell.

https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=1

Please add your favorite webcomics in the comments. Especially if they are about gaming.

Thanks

Full disclosure: I was given this game for free by its publisher.  This was not done for purposes of review (more out of pity!), but it would not be honest to fail to mention this potential bias.

I have a somewhat complicated relationship with Bloodshadows.  I originally encountered it when it was a West End Games setting for their Masterbook game (itself part of the '90s trend of turning every house game system—in this case the game system behind Torg and Shatterzone—into a generic game).  The thing is that while I admired several features of Masterbook, at it core I found it a pretty fundamentally flawed game that I didn't want to play very much.  Which was a pity because the Bloodshadows setting I adored straight out of the box.

So here we are, over two decades later, and I find myself with a Bloodshadows game in my hand from the home where all the great, undervalued games go for continued unlife: Precis Intermedia (rapidly becoming my favourite currently-active publisher of RPGs).

... more