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Year: 2013

Kickstarter Alert: Dungeon Roll Dice Game

Kickstarter Alert: Dungeon Roll Dice Game

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DungeonRoll-bitsTasty Minstrel Game’s latest Kickstarter project has blown away funding goals and, with a week left, looks to be one of the best Kickstarter deals that I’ve seen in quite some time. This game is basically a dice-based dungeon crawl in a box (a treasure box, no less … and a mimic box for Kickstarters!) that has 7 days to go as of this writing (funds at 1:00 am Eastern on March 20).

The basic gameplay (as demonstrated in this video) is that you’re rolling a group of Dungeon Dice to get the monsters on a given level of the dungeon and then the Party Dice to try to get a combination that can beat the monsters. The different faces of the Party Dice get different benefits against given monsters, such as a Wizard on the Party Dice being able to destroy all of the Oozes with a single attack. The Heroes can modify the basic rules (the first 5 Heroes are shown on the video here). The goal is to get treasure and experience, making your way through the dungeon.

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Red Sonja 14

Red Sonja 14

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Red Sonja 14 coverSo this issue begins with Red Sonja walking through an unnamed town at night, minding her own business. Not sure how small the town is or how late, but on page one, we see only one other person on the street and he’s sleeping on it. I’ve probably mentioned before in these reviews that I find the preponderance of unnamed towns and unnamed demons to be a bit annoying, especially coming from Roy Thomas, who’s fairly knowledgeable about all things Hyborian. Seriously, just make up a name for the town or use a real city name. No one’s going to check.

Watch. Evanston. Red Sonja’s walking through Evanston, trying to forget her beloved Suumaro (the mommy-fixated boy-king who treated his wives like slaves and wanted Sonja to join his harem – what a catch). Now let’s move along.

So Red Sonja is just minding her own business, which is pretty much all the invitation anyone seems to need to bother her. She’s approached by a glowing nobleman named Gonzallo (see, no one cares that it’s a stupid name), who offers to pay her a diamond if she’ll act as his bodyguard for a few hours. When she asks why he’s glowing, he dismisses the question by saying that he’s eccentric.

The diamond looks real, so Red Sonja lets herself be hired. The first thing Gonzallo does is guide her to his gondola (oh, so they’re in Venice) and his requisite deformed gondolier, Karon. As the three of them make their way through the canals of (Venice? Evanston? Lower Aquilonia?), Sonja notices the surroundings have begun to change and soon they’re moving through an underground canal. The chamber is lit faintly by phosphorus, just enough for Sonja to see an iron gate rising up out of the water to block the way they’d come.

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On the One Year Anniversary of John Carter, Let’s Look Forward to a New Tarzan Movie

On the One Year Anniversary of John Carter, Let’s Look Forward to a New Tarzan Movie

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neal_adams_2-the_return_of_tarzan[Update: Damn, appears this isn’t happening. Warner Bros. is pulling the plug.]

Speaking of Tarzan movies, did you know that a new live-action film is gearing up? Perhaps not, since it has been “bubbling under” in entertainment news and only in the last few months started to reach a boil people might notice, but yeah — it’s a thing. Thinking over the progress toward another adventure of the Lord of the Jungle — who is 101 years old this October — helps me cope with another anniversary, this one only a year old. It’s a bittersweet memory, but let me go over it a moment before returning to Tarzan.

Over this weekend, Disney released a new take on a fantasy franchise more than a century old: Oz, The Great and Powerful, director Sam Raimi’s prequel to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (as well as its somewhat famous 1939 film adaptation). Although Oz boasts a huge price tag of $215 million, the opening weekend take of $80 million in the U.S. is strong sign of success.

And, unfortunately, this is a reminder of what happened with the film Disney released exactly one year ago this same weekend: John Carter of Mars (the film’s on-screen title at the end, but called John Carter on promotional materials). The $250 million adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s hundred-year-old planetary fantasy opened to $30 million and immediate declarations of Epic Flop-dom.

John Carter of Mars was not the biggest flop in history — but the media hopped on that story and rode with it. In fact, they were on board the flop story more than year before the film came out. How John Carter of Mars got kneecapped through terrible marketing, social media misfires, false preconceptions, and the power shifts at Disney is a lengthy tale. I wrote a bit about the marketing bungles after the film came out, and readers who want a book-length version of this story should dip into John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood by Michael D. Sellers, one of many fans who fought to get grassroots support for the film moving.

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March/April Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine now on Sale

March/April Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine now on Sale

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Fantasy and Science Fiction March April 2013Holy cats, the latest issue of F&SF has been out for two weeks, and we haven’t covered it yet. I’m asleep at the switch. It’s only the most important fantasy magazine, period. I’ll complete this post, and then submit myself for ritual flogging.

Let’s see what Chuck Rothman at Tangent Online thinks of this issue. Unlike us, he got his review in on time:

“Solidarity” is a bit of dystopian fiction, set in the Seastead, a group of ships that have been turned into a floating city, where anything goes. Beck is the daughter of an important official and has been kicked out and has been cut off by him. She tries to scramble around in a place where nothing is free in the name of freedom and stumbles upon a potential political plot. Beck is a great character and Naomi Kritzer portrays a chillingly realistic society… This is primarily an adventure, but the well-thought-out setting makes it an excellent read…

Andy is “The Assassin” in a story by F&SF regular Albert E. Cowdrey. He failed once when his target turned out to be a hologram and is going back to finish the job… The story follows Andy’s life and how it intertwines with Faith as he makes it through a hellhole prison to a form of happiness. The story never stops being fascinating and the characters — even the ones who might be clichés — never stop being surprising.

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Ellen Datlow on Hating One of My Questions, a Brief History of Science Fiction Publishing, and What Kind of Short Fiction Writers She’s Looking For: An Audio Interview

Ellen Datlow on Hating One of My Questions, a Brief History of Science Fiction Publishing, and What Kind of Short Fiction Writers She’s Looking For: An Audio Interview

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ellen_datlow_bioEllen Datlow is one of the most award-winning, if not the most award-winning, editors in science fiction and fantasy. To date, she has won four Hugos, three Bram Stoker Awards, nine World Fantasy Awards, two International Horror Guild Awards, two Shirley Jackson Awards, and five Locus Awards.

Regular readers of Black Gate will remember her brief interview calling for backers for a Kickstarter Campaign, and readers delivered in a big way. Her campaign was funded and even reached a stretch goal, and that anthology, Fearful Symmetries will be open to submissions May 1, 2013, so if you have a horror story to submit, mark your calendar. Details will be on the Kickstarter campaign page.

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SF Signal on Liar’s Blade: “Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style Sword and Sorcery”

SF Signal on Liar’s Blade: “Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style Sword and Sorcery”

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Pathfinder Liar’s BladeSF Signal‘s Karen Burnham gives a big thumbs-up to Tim Pratt’s latest Pathfinder novel, Liar’s Blade, with the kind of review that sends me scrambling to find a copy:

The Pathfinder line of RPG novels is doing a lot of things right. They’ve been publishing intelligent adventure novels that showcase their gaming system and their campaign setting in lush detail. They’ve hired a variety of solid, professional authors, and they’ve spread their tales among a wide variety of heroes instead of following one party for multiple books. The one thing that they had been missing – until now – was the particular brand of [charm] that I have recently come to love in Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series. Tim Pratt has done an excellent job of capturing that spirit in this Pathfinder outing.

Fafhrd-and-Grey-Mouser-style Sword and Sorcery in a Pathfinder setting? Sign me up!

Tim’s first Pathfinder Tales novel was City of the Fallen Sky (June, 2012), which seems to be unrelated to this one. But maybe not; I’ll have to read them both to be sure. The “variety of solid, professional authors” Karen mentions include Howard Andrew Jones, Richard Lee Byers, Dave Gross, Robin D. Laws, Elaine Cunningham, Ed Greenwood, James L. Sutter, and many others.

We’ve been telling you about Paizo’s premiere fiction line for a while; don’t pretend we haven’t. We presented an exclusive excerpt from Dave Gross’s new Pathfinder Tales novel, Queen of Thorns, in October; we also covered the release of Howard Andrew Jones’s Plague of Shadows in October 2011. Bill Ward’s four-part Pathfinder Tales story “The Box” was published online back in October 2011, and Howard had his own Pathfinder Tales piece, “The Walkers from the Crypt,” a 4-part mini-epic, published free online in March 2011.

Liar’s Blade was published March 12, 2013 by Paizo Publishing. It is 400 pages in paperback, priced at $9.99. You can download a free sample chapter or purchase the digital edition for $6.99 directly from Paizo.com, or read Karen’s complete review at SF Signal.

If, July 1961: A Retro-Review

If, July 1961: A Retro-Review

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Worlds of If July 1961-smallI’ll get back to Cele Goldsmith’s magazines soon enough, but I happened to grab this issue of If, so it’s up next. This issue comes from very late in H. L. Gold’s official tenure as editor – Frederik Pohl became editor (officially) with the first issue of 1962. (I believe it’s generally regarded that Pohl was editor in all but name for some time prior.) During this period, the cover and spine read only If Science Fiction, though the title page still had “Worlds of” ambiguously placed, so that one could read it either If: Worlds of Science Fiction or Worlds of If Science Fiction.

The cover is by Dember, called “Operation Overlook,” not illustrating any story. (It’s a depiction of a manned satellite orbiting Earth, apparently watching for rocket launches and the like.) Interiors were by Wood, Larry Ivie, and West, and someone unidentified in one case. (Sometimes the illustrator was credited, sometimes I could read the signature, and in one case there was no signature and no credit.) There’s also a page called IFun, with two single panel comics, by Wagner.

Advertisements include the ubiquitous Rosicruans, U. S. Savings Bonds, and some in-house ads. Other features include Science Briefs, a puzzle, and a brief article about the Wendigo, by Theodore Sturgeon (on the masthead as “Feature Editor.”) There is also an attempt to start (restart?) a letter column, to be called Hue and Cry, though this single page only briefly quotes a letter from one Lawrence Crilly, requesting a lettercol.

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Black Gate Online Fiction: “The Sealord’s Successor,” Part II, by Aaron Bradford Starr

Black Gate Online Fiction: “The Sealord’s Successor,” Part II, by Aaron Bradford Starr

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The Sealord's Successor Part One-smallToday we are proud to present the second and final installment in “The Sealord’s Successor,” a complete 35,000-word novella of fantasy mystery, and the third tale of Gallery Hunters Gloren Avericci and Yr Neh.

Gloren Avericci and Yr Neh find themselves drawn into a deadly conspiracy involving a powerful kingdom, ancient secrets… and a very peculiar painting.

Our perilous, mad descent began in the middle of a raging storm. The runners bore us along a mountain path lit only by flashes of blinding lightning, tromping at speed down water-washed trails alongside deep chasms and sheer drop-offs, bearing us in pursuit of those who had left the citadel.

Dressed as we still were for a coronation feast, neither Gloren nor I were prepared for this sudden chase. But Gloren leaned far out into the night, regarding the winding road below us with visible distress. Crossing close below us was the carriage of Baron Lurec, and ahead of him that of the Countess Therissa and her companion Velice. Further on still, but lost from view in the night’s inclement weather, Garder Jho’s medical team was surely nearing Landing Port, the primary harbor.

I glanced back up toward the citadel, visible only as a dark patch against flickering skies, and noted the beacon. This signal, a red circle encompassed by a green ring, was a sign the harbor should be sealed, forbidding passage into or out of Landing Port.

I had asked Gloren who, exactly, we were chasing after a particularly harrowing turn.

“Everyone,” he replied.

Gloren Avericci and Yr Neh were last seen in “The Tea-Maker’s Task” (published here on December 30th) and “The Daughter’s Dowry” (October 14). Of “The Daughter’s Dowry,” Tangent Online said, “A story such as this deserves a world of its own and more adventures from its hero,” and it called “The Tea-Maker’s Task” “an entertaining, tongue-in-cheek fantasy… I wanted more.” We’re more than happy to oblige with this third exciting installment of the adventures of Gallery Hunter Gloren and his cat companion, Yr Neh.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Mark Rigney, C.S.E. Cooney, Vaughn Heppner, E.E. Knight, Jason E. Thummel, Judith Berman, Howard Andrew Jones, Dave Gross, Harry Connolly, and others, is here.

“The Sealord’s Successor”  is a complete 35,000-word novella of fantasy mystery presented in two parts, with original art by Aaron Bradford Starr. It is offered at no cost. Part I is here.

Read Part II here.

Weird of Oz: Scooby Meets Buffy (a Postscript)

Weird of Oz: Scooby Meets Buffy (a Postscript)

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scooby-dooLast week’s post was prompted by a term I used fleetingly in my review of the new Scooby-Doo series two weeks ago: “post-Buffy.” Rather than go off on a tangent explaining what I meant by that in the midst of discussing Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, I promised any interested readers that I would devote a whole column to this concept of “post-Buffy” in my next installment.

So last Sunday I posted “Weird of Oz Considers Postbuffyism,” primarily to reflect on how Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) influenced later television.

Buffy_the_Vampire_Slayer_CoverartWhat caught me off guard was the pushback I got to my assessment of Buffy and its significance in television history. Of course, one or two people questioned the merits of the series itself — that’s okay; some people just don’t dig Buffy. Others asserted there were earlier series already using narrative innovations to weave multiple plot threads over several seasons, which I did acknowledge — my premise was not that Buffy was the first, only that it generally has been one of the most influential.

But then one commenter brought up a series that gave me pause: The X-Files. Here was a series to which much of what I said regarding Buffy could also apply, and which has arguably been as influential on genre television. This prompted me to formulate a response that itself grew into a post-script or a sequel to the original post, but before I get to that I’d like to take a moment to tie the last two posts more closely together: to explain why the new Scooby-Doo series got me to thinking about Buffy in the first place.

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Vintage Treasures: Shadows of Yog-Sothoth

Vintage Treasures: Shadows of Yog-Sothoth

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Shadows of Yog SothothLast week I wrote about the death of Lynn Willis, the legendary editor at Chaosium, who gradually became the mastermind behind Call of Cthulhu, one of the finest RPGs ever made. While at Chaosium Lynn helped write and edit no less than 54 Call of Cthulhu books and supplements like Cthulhu by Gaslight, as well as a host of other board games and products, including Arkham Horror, RuneQuest, Thieves’ World, King Arthur Companion, Stormbringer Companion, Carse, Tulan of the Isles, Atlas of the Young Kingdoms, and dozens more.

In honor of Lynn, I dug around this week to find those products that first captured my attention all those years ago. They weren’t hard to find, as they still occupy a place of pride in my collection.

When Sandy Peterson’s Call of Cthulhu was first released as a boxed set in 1981, the entire industry took notice. Here was the first truly appealing contemporary (or, at least, semi-contemporary) role playing game, which drew on the horrifying cosmic milieu and fabulous bestiary of none other than H.P. Lovecraft. It was an instant hit. But by itself, Call of Cthulhu was just a fascinating oddity. It wasn’t until Chaosium released Shadows of Yog-Sothoth, A Global Campaign to Save Mankind a year later that we realized what the game was truly capable of.

Shadows of Yog-Sothoth is an epic, self-contained campaign which first introduced role players to the kind of play demanded by CoC. Players who treated Cthulhu and his minions as simply big D&D monsters, chubby creatures ready to be harvested for their experience point value, were in for a rude awakening.

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