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Having strong, defined categories makes it easier to sell them to people. When fantasy encompasses Elves and four-armed Tharks, enchanted swords and lasers, marketing becomes more difficult.

100%. It's funny, the book that broke my genre purism was Burroughs A Princess of Mars. I didn't get to reading that until my mid-to-late-20s. And from there, the more I explored Appendix N, the more I realized how relatively recent that divide, that codification had occurred in the last few...

It's a hoot. I imagine if the PCs really got into exploring how medieval fantasy characters would react to the real world, it gets even funnier.

Love that cover. Like the later cover of #116, it really stands out by trying something different. Having read Gygax's Gord the Rogue novels, I don't know that his writing improved that much. Writing RPGs and writing fiction are two different skills. The City Beyond the Gate is a wild...

Considering how many shows get cancelled before their time, were I a show runner for a D&D live action series, I'd think twice before adapting anything that could take more than two seasons to tell the story. Thinking about it, I think I'll go with Desert of Desolation or the Giants series. Play...

You know, something I've been thinking about lately is how the drastic reduction of save or die effects in the current edition has dramatically changed how PCs interact with the world. You didn't even have to use them a lot, but knowing that there was stuff that could kill your character in a...

That's the thing - the reach of the hardcovers were greater than that of the modules. Back in the day I only had a few AD&D modules, but had almost all of the orange spine releases.

The Fiend Folio is pure concentrated AD&D weirdness. And it's got some game-defining entries. Drow and Lolth, Death Knights, Elemental Princes of Evil, Hook Horrors, Svirfneblin, Githyanki, Kuo-Toa, just to name a few. Without the Fiend Folio, the Underdark and Astral Plane would be very...

This was a tough one. In the end, I went with the PHB. It's the core of the game, after all, and what inspires you to dive into the world. But the DMG is dense with detail and ideas, the Manual of the Planes has my favorite cover (and blew open what a game of AD&D could be), and the Fiend Folio...

Matching mechanics and tone is a big part of it. Some systems are designed with very specific goals that don't match certain genres or tonalities. Not that there haven't been attempts at universal systems, but I would struggle to name one that did things better than a purpose-built system. MYB...

Totally. Also, the speed at which a session where the party stops to check every corridor for traps progresses would grind any dungeon crawl to a snail's pace.

You also see that with DCC RPG. As much as I think they're both great systems, I'm generally not a fan of using one system for every genre.

I finished reading Gibson's Virtual Light. So good. No idea why I read and re-read Neuromancer multiple times, but this only once. The Bridge comes to life so vividly. I also finished The Medium is the Massage by Marshall McLuhan. Wild how a book published in the 60s could see how things would...

It depends. I think there's a place for trapped locks and treasure chests without tells. Stuff you'd expect to have traps on it. A hallway with a random trap and no tells, not so much. I don't think gotcha traps are that fun. Now, what is fun is a jewel on a pedestal with an enormous scythe...

I was in my 30s when I first discovered it and Hardwired. I've re-read Hardwired multiple times since, but this was my first re-read of Voice of the Whirlwind.

Gotcha. I think I've watched exactly one episode of Hazbin Hotel.

We used it back in the day as well. Were I to revisit 2e, I'm not sure I would, though. Yes, it adds depth to the game, but I'm not sure it provides enough value to justify the additional layer to initiative.

While there have been some notable series that have been "rescued," I feel like those are in the minority. But one can always hope. Arguably, not taking chances and gambles is part of what is deadening modern media, leading us to formulaic storytelling, to so many premature cancellations.

Oh definitely. Some stories take time. But it's a huge gamble in today's streaming environment. I never expected the Wheel of Time series to make it to the end, for example.

Wintersmith is an exceptional book. The Aching series sneaks in just as much depth and insightful commentary on human existence as the main Discworld series. Warhammer Fantasy fiction, while not uniformly great, generally set a higher bar than D&D fiction.