All Entries Tagged With: "Books"
Book Report: The Fortifications of Ancient Egypt 3000-1780 BC from Osprey Publishing
As regular readers know, I am a huge fan of using history as a foundation for game campaigns. Nothing beats a little reality to spice up your next RPG campaign. To further my goal of injecting history into game campaigns, I occasionally do a “book report” on a history book that I find interesting and [...]
Book Report: Life in a Medieval Castle by Joseph and Francis Gies
Life in a Medieval Castle by Joseph and Francis Gies is a must-have book for any medieval fantasy game. Period. I do not use terms like “must have” very often because it implies that the lack of this book somehow makes you a lesser game master than those that do own it. In this case, [...]
Paperback Swap–Fantasy and RPG Books on the Cheap
Hello fellow LivingDice readers, It is Haaldaar, your friendly Holy Knight of Haruspices! I thought I would take some of the load off of Trask for the night and tell you about Paperbackswap. Now, this website isn’t solely focused on gaming, but there are a lot of fantasy and gaming books available in this book [...]
Arthur Machen, Inspiration for Lovecraft's Cthulhu
A few weeks ago, I made reference to seeking the inspirations of H.P. Lovecraft. I started with Lord Dunsany and am busily working my way through his fine tome of short stories. In the meantime, I spent the weekend reading another author that inspired Lovecraft, Arthur Machen . “The Three Impostors ” is a collection [...]
Book Suggestion: Maps of War
The Gods of Work are now appeased. I sacrificed time and blood to them and they granted me a boon…a 40-hour work week! With my return to normalcy comes the time to blog once again. Monday I had enough time to actually go shopping and wandered in to a “Borders” bookstore. There, forgotten on the [...]
Book Suggestion: The Gladiator by Philip Wylie
No, not the movie “Gladiator” with Russel Crowe. I speak of the fine novel by Philip Wylie (better known for “When Worlds Collide “) written in 1930. “The Gladiator ” tells the tale of a young man (Hugo Danner) who, through an experiment by his father, grows up to be superhuman. He can withstand bullets, [...]
Book Review: "Works of Shakespeare" Using Shakespeare in Role-Playing Games
Epic drama is a key foundation of all role-playing games. I always believed that a good RPG is closer to interactive theatre than a game. With this in mind, I was excited to see a new offering from Louis J. Porter Designs , “Works of Shakespeare” by Jason J. McCuiston. The title is not very [...]
Review: Flashman by George MacDonald Fraser
Villians are supposed to lose. I just finished a novel where not only does the villian win, you are rooting for him! This is the basis of “Flashman” by George MacDonald Fraser . Upfront Review: Flashman is the novel’s hero… and an amoral bastard, but endlessly fascinating. A great romp through British colonial history. Flashman [...]
Review: The Damned by Alan Dean Foster
Trask grows weary of aliens landing and killing all the helpless humans. Invariably, aliens either have advanced technology or a biological edge, ie. claws and big, sharp teeth to get the job done. It never occurs to anyone that some aliens might not be so big and scary. That humanity could be the most dangerous [...]