The Friday Grab Bag - Book It

Over on io9.gizmodo.com, they explain "How to Tell if the First Draft of Your Novel Just Isn't Worth Salvaging" here.

Also, on rebellesociety.com, they give us "Writing Tips: Kurt Vonnegut’s 8 Essentials for a Good Short Story" here.

Finally, on writersdigest.com, we learn "11 Steps to Finding the Agent Who’ll Love Your Book" here.

The Friday Grab Bag on CreativeMountainGames.com 

Essentially, a clearinghouse for topics not covered

elsewhere or needing a particular focus.

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RPG Media Monday - Tolkien

Over on nytimes.com, they tell us "How J.R.R. Tolkien Found Mordor on the Western Front" here.

Also, on multiverse.world, we're told "How To Read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings" here.

Finally, on smithsonianmag.com, they present "The Tolkien Nerd’s Guide to The Hobbit" here.

RPG Media Monday on CreativeMountainGames.com 

News for Movies, Television, and more
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RPG Media Monday - Missing & Dying

Over on theonion.com, a recent headline read "Investigators: First 48 Hours Most Critical In Locating Missing Children Who Entered Portal To Fantastical World" here.

Also, on multiverse.world, they shared "Dying Fantasy Quotes Volume 1" here.

Finally, on moviepilot.com, they recap "Every Death in Game of Thrones Season 6" here.

RPG Media Monday on CreativeMountainGames.com 

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Throwback Thursday - Conan

Over on starburstmagazine.com and barbariankeep.com, there are a couple of histories of the character of Conan the Barbarian in publication with the first being "A Brief History of Conan the Barbarian" here and the other being "Sources for Robert E. Howard's Original Conan Stories" here.

Also, on ageofconan.com, you can play the current "Age of Conan (Unchained)" game here.

Finally, on cinemablend.com, they tell us "A Conan The Barbarian Game Is Coming, Get The Details" here.

Throwback Thursday on CreativeMountainGames.com 

A look back at early tabletop hobby gaming

 or gaming-adjacent topics of the past.

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Media News Monday - Cow Catapult, Last Kingdom, & Ultraman

Over on nerdapproved.com, they tell us "The ‘Python Holy Grail’ 40th Anniversary Box Set Has A Working Cow Catapult" here.

Also, on msn.com, they herald a new series based on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories here.

Finally, on the yuu56551 YouTube channel, they recently added a new video showing Ultraman in a modern world.  Enjoy!

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Media News Monday - Alien, Conan, & New Holmes

Variety spilled the beans last week that a "New ‘Alien’ Movie [is] Confirmed with Director Neill Blomkamp" here.

Also, on io9.com, they told us "Everything You Never Knew About The Making of Conan The Barbarian" here.

Finally, io9.com reports that you can "Read The Lost Sherlock Holmes Short Story Someone Found In An Attic."  Find out more here.

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The Friday Grab Bag - The Genre Debate, Educational Gaming, & OSR Designing

Over on The New Yorker website, Joshua Rothman wrote an interesting literary piece on "A Better Way to Think About the Genre Debate" here.

Also, the orlandosentinel.com website describes an "After-school Game Changer[, a] program [that] combines education, dragon-slaying" here.

Finally, Mystic Bull Games wrote a position piece last August urging publishers, game designers, writers, etc. to "Stop Telling Stories or How to Design for the OSR."  This, however, strikes me as misleading from the jump off as he says that "TLDR: Make a world. Put interesting stuff in it. Some stuff is really bad. Some stuff is really good. It’s hard to tell the difference until characters start messing with them. The DM and players tell the stories, not you."  In truth, not only should the designers not try to be telling a particular story, but also the GM and players simply play the game, and a story (good, bad, somewhere in between) emerges as a byproduct of that gameplay.  Paul Wolfe makes this idea more clear when he explains, "All that’s going to be left is the story that the players and the DM tell years later."  He also makes the mistake of calling the referees and facilitators of these games "DM" rather than "GM" which is problematic for Traveller enthusiasts, Gamma World fans, Boot Hill owners, and players of all sorts of OSR Roleplaying Games that do NOT have "dungeons."  Of course, I am not necessarily assuming he is using the R in OSR as Roleplaying rather than Revival or Renaissance which would make it problematic even more so for Old School wargamers and boardgamers, but that's not really the focus here.

Where Paul missteps is by writing as if this is exclusively an OSR situation.  This isn't just in regard to the OSR, this is a tenet of all roleplay gaming (though less so regarding RPGs with Storytelling Elements and not necessarily at all regarding full-fledged Storytelling Games, but we'll leave those aside).  In Roleplaying Games, the GM creates (or buys) a setting, complete with fleshed out nouns (people, places, things).  Players create characters that exist in that setting, therefore requiring the approval of the GM for whatever they create (usually some guidance from the system being used or some assistance from the GM is all that is needed).  Finally, the players, through their characters, interact with the setting and as they describe their actions, the GM adjudicates (often using dice for random outcomes) and describes the consequences.  The GM can give the players information with an overall view or from the perspective of their individual characters and the players can ask questions about what their characters know and sense (see, hear, etc.).  This process is repeated through the lives of the characters, and those characters develop even as the players become more experienced with the game.  However, it is a common mistake for folks to see RPGs as a way to write stories rather than a way to play a game from which a story might emerge, and I think the way in which Paul states his position leaves open that misinterpretation.  For the most part, I think Paul is on the right track but stops just short of giving the bigger picture.

The Friday Grab Bag on CreativeMountainGames.com 

Essentially, a clearinghouse for topics not covered
elsewhere or needing a particular focus.

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Media News Monday - Hobbit Happenings

As most of you are probably aware, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) opens this week in theaters  and I am personally psyched to see it.  Let me clarify, that I am psyched to see it on the big screen, not simply just to see it.  I've waited a long time to see live action versions of the books I read back in the early 70s and I am quite fine that Peter Jackson put his own spin on some portions LotR and The Hobbit, even going so far as to add characters and sequences, and cut some things out that others might have kept.

Oh, and allow me to mention right up front that I am not inviting debate over whether PJ should have made the films frame for frame as Tolkien wrote the stories nor about Hollywood's hand in helping Tolkien get exercise by making him roll over in his grave.  This argument has been flogged since The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and it doesn't sway anyone nor will it keep Jackson from coveting the Silmarils and planning a movie for each of the three.  As far as I am concerned, the-movies-ruined-my-blah-blah-blah argument never works, not with Jackson's Tolkien films nor Marvel's comic book movies nor Franco's Faulkner.  Unless J.R.R. tucked you in at night in the early 20th Century after reading his latest scribblings about tiny people living in the Shire, you won't have anything new that hasn't been beaten to death around Internet town, so please save your keystrokes so you can also avoid being offended when I summarily delete any such comments.  If I had a ring, I'd just avoid them the Bilbo way, despite the risk of drawing Sauron, his minions, and damnation on Middle-earth.

Getting back to the opening, I'm of a mind that this is in one way much like any other movie coming out that has sweeping action and epic cinematography, and it needs to be seen on the big screen.  But with films I have waited thirty to forty years to realize, I think this needs something more.  As such, it is my intention to see these on the largest IMAX screen in striking distance in 70 mm with 3D.  I've even looked into the Hobbit Marathons that are happening and seriously considered spending a full day enjoying all three movies back-to-back-to-back in that most glorious medium.  It is a once in a lifetime opportunity, after all.


In semi-related news, "Sir Ian McKellen gives Oxford students 'LOTR'-style lesson in work ethics" here.  Martin Freeman answered questions from Facebook users here.  And Stephen Colbert interviewed Smaug as part of his remaining shows.  Brilliant!

So, enjoy the movie if you can in as large a way as possible.  If you already know it is something you cannot enjoy, please don't spend your precious time trying to ruin it for other people.  Life is too short for such efforts and there is certainly something else you do enjoy that it can benefit you to pursue instead.  All the best, everyone.  All the best.

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Bernard Cornwell Discusses The Warrior Chronicles

Over on Waterstones.com, Bernard Cornwell discusses his series, The Warrior Chronicles.  Read more here!

Harry Potter Spin-Off

Just an early heads up, indeed, to let everyone know the Harry Potter spin-off, Fantastic Beast has been given a release date of November 18, 2016.  Mark your calendars and read more here!

Tony DiTerlizzi's The Battle for WondLa

For those who have been waiting, and for those catching up, Tony DiTerlizzi's The Battle for WondLa is available now on Amazon here!

Paul S. Kemp's Birthday!

Hey, it's Paul S. Kemp's birthday so let's surprise him by putting his book, The Hammer and the Blade, up a few notches on Amazon.  And if you have already read it, then be sure to rate it and dash off a little review.  Pick it up here!

Tournament of Death 3 - Live Fantasy Novel Kickstarter

The excellent Steve Sullivan is spearheading a fun project on Kickstarter titled "Tournament of Death 3 - Live Fantasy Novel" with others such as Jim Ward, Paul McComas, Matt Forbeck, Ed Greenwood, Stan! (Brown), and Jean Rabe.  It's already funded and in the home stretch, so get on board while you can be a part of it.  See more here!

Bernard Cornwell's The Pagan Lord Available in the USA

For those who have been waiting for the seventh book in Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories series, The Pagan Lord, it is now available in the US market.  If you don't already have one, perhaps it is time to sign up for a free trial of Amazon Prime or even Audible.  See more here!

Naomi Mitchison's Forgotten Novel

A contemporary of Tolkien, Naomi Mitchison, wrote a children's story that io9.com suggests is "The book we all wish we could have read as children." Read more here!

Isabel on Hulu

I ran across a series on the order of The Tudors, The Borgias, or The White Queen called Isabel.  If you don't mind subtitles, or speak Spanish, you can watch the whole first season on Hulu.  I'm spreading this one out a bit, personally.  Read more here and see more here!

New Potter-verse Film in the Works

Over on io0.com, it is being reported that J. K. Rowling is penning a new film set in the same world as the Harry Potter stories, though without Harry and company.  Read more here!

The White Queen Cancelled-ish

The BBC has announced that the ten episodes of The White Queen that have been rolling out on various timetables depending on location are all there will be.  Some feel this was meant to be the first season of a longer adaptation of Philippa Gregory's popular novels from her collection, The War of the Roses.  However it seems fans may have been led down the garden path.  Read more here!

Omni Magazine Reboot

That classic fantasy and science fiction periodical, Omni Magazine, and seeing new light as a reboot.  Check it out here and read about the reboot here!

HBO Plans 6 Seasons Of Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’

It had been reported some time back on ScreenRant.com that "HBO Plans 6 Seasons Of Neil Gaiman’s ‘American Gods’" and some more recent updates have been gathered earlier this year on HBOWatch.com here!