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Showing posts from November, 2018

Writing Again (and I'm done with themed anthologies)

Following a minor bout of cancer (featuring surgeries and 6 months of chemotherapy), I'm writing again! Having spent some time reviewing my writing career to date, I note with a degree of dismay that while I've had some material published, I'm not super happy with all of it. In the past I've pandered to the whims of the industry in order to get stories out. Well, I'm done with that. Now I'm writing what I want to write. No more < 5,000 word stories about "blue aliens on exoplanets", simply because a publisher somewhere decided that's what they wanted for their next anthology. I know it may seem a little hypocritical, given that I helped come up with the theme of A Hand of Knaves (and I stand by it), but I'm allowed to be hypocritical if the mood takes me. And the mood does take me.  From now on I'm writing whatever the hell I want. It might not get published, but it'll be mine and I think I'll be a lot happier with that.  Let...
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On Being a Dinosaur

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Tears and laughter. For this kid it was mostly tears. This weekend the Royal Society of Tasmania put on a picnic in the park WITH DINOSAURS for the kids (4000 of them apparently). As I do from time to time, I was one of the dinosaurs - the Utahraptor to be precise. The little ones loved it and I had a lot of fun too. There was a baby T-rex there as well, expertly operated by a friend of mine. You can't see much in those suits, so you need dino-wranglers to shout out when you're about to mow some poor kid down, or when one of the more "excitable" little tykes starts trying to punch you in the knee.  Verdict: Being a dino is a lot of fun but those suits can get really, really hot inside. 
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Waterdeep vs Lankhmar: Dragon Heist

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I've only just started my 5e D&D journey, having played through Horde of the Dragon Queen  earlier this year with some friends and really loving it. On a whim (after having launched A Hand of Knaves and still feeling the roguish vibe) I picked up the  Dragon Heist  (Waterdeep) campaign module last week and it looks really good. Dragon Heist begins with a low-intensity mystery, allowing players to get a feel for their new characters, and slowly builds into a fun urban adventure. The city-based intrigue is strongly reminiscent of the AD&D 1st and 2nd ed. Lankhmar adventures, which I absolutely love. It's difficult to compare the two really, since my friends and I spent many game sessions navigating Lankhmar's dark, rogue-invested back-alleys, and I know little about Waterdeep - but still - I get a very Lankhmar-ish vibe from Dragon Heist . The city maps for both are spectacularly detailed - though I think I prefer the Lankhmar map for its colourful names and gen...
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