Green Ronin Releases Family Games: The 100 Best

Two years ago, Green Ronin Publishing released one of the best books on hobby gaming ever written. Their book, Hobby Games: The 100 Best, featured thoughtful articles highlighting some of the best games in the history of the gaming hobby written by some of the best game designers in the industry. Some of the games were well known and are played by thousands of gamers on a regular basis, others were rare games that influenced the creation of the games people play today. One thing is certain, the game became a Christmas Wish List for many gamers and started an internet meme where game hobbyists listed the games they own/play.

Green Ronin has now followed up on the hobby game book with a book entitled Family Games: The 100 Best. With it the company hopes to provide for family games the same kind of invaluable resource they provided for the hobby game industry. The book was originally slated to be released last year's Gen Con convention, but was delayed for a variety of reasons.

Your average consumer isn't a collector of games and doesn't have room in their house for 1000+ board/card/roleplaying/family games and resources like these two books allow for those consumers to purchase games based on the opinions of individuals who have a great deal of experience in designing and playing games. Why James Lowder and the folks at Green Ronin have yet to ask me for an entry in their compilations is beyond understanding, but the list of games in this edition is once again a wonderful selection of the popular and the rare and consumers cannot go wrong with any of the games on the list.

I have provided a copy of the games included in the new volume below, those games that are bold are games that I own and those games that are italicized are games that I have played.

Family Games: The 100 Best

* Foreword by Mike Gray
* Introduction by James Lowder
* Afterword by Wil Wheaton
* Appendix A: Games and Education by David Millians
* Appendix B: Family Games in Hobby Games: The 100 Best by James Lowder

* Carrie Bebris on 10 Days in the USA
* Steven E. Schend on 1960: The Making of the President
* Dominic Crapuchettes on Apples to Apples
* Mike Breault on The Awful Green Things from Outer Space
* Jeff Tidball on Balderdash
* Keith Baker on Bang!
* Bruce Harlick on Battleship
* James Wallis on Bausack
* Paul Jaquays on Black Box
* Lewis Pulsipher on Blokus
* Teeuwynn Woodruff on Boggle
* Fred Hicks on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
* James Ernest on Candy Land
* Ian Livingstone on Can't Stop
* Bruce Whitehill on Careers
* Jared Sorensen on Cat
* Wolfgang Baur on Cathedral
* John Scott Tynes on Clue
* Alessio Cavatore on Condottiere
* Elaine Cunningham on Connect Four
* Will Hindmarch on Cranium
* Erik Mona on Crossbows and Catapults
* William W. Connors on Dark Tower
* John D. Rateliff on Dogfight
* Robert J. Schwalb on Dungeon!
* jim pinto on Dvonn
* Gav Thorpe on Easter Island
* Jeff Grubb on Eurorails
* Kenneth Hite on Faery's Tale Deluxe
* Richard Dansky on Family Business
* Warren Spector on Focus
* Corey Konieczka on For Sale
* James M. Ward on Fortress America
* Stan! on Frank's Zoo
* Bruce C. Shelley on The Game of Life
* Phil Orbanes on A Gamut of Games
* Monica Valentinelli on Gloom
* Matt Leacock on Go Away Monster!
* Steve Jackson on The Great Dalmuti
* David "Zeb" Cook on Guillotine
* Jason Matthews on Gulo Gulo
* Joshua Howard on Halli Galli
* Bruce Nesmith on Hare & Tortoise
* Mike Pondsmith on HeroClix
* Anthony J. Gallela on HeroQuest
* Chris Pramas on HeroScape
* Ed Greenwood on Hey! That's My Fish!
* Colin McComb on Hive
* Alan R. Moon on Hoity Toity
* Jon Leitheusser on Ingenious
* Uli Blennemann on Java
* Luke Crane on Jungle Speed
* Monte Cook on Kill Doctor Lucky
* Emiliano Sciarra on Knightmare Chess
* Todd A. Breitenstein on Liar's Dice
* Marc Gascoigne on Loopin' Louie
* Andrew Parks on Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation
* Seth Johnson on Lost Cities
* John Yianni on Magi-Nation
* Bill Bodden on Master Labyrinth
* Andrew Greenberg on Mastermind
* Ken Levine on Memoir '44
* Scott Haring on Mille Bornes
* Steve Jackson on Monopoly
* Sheri Graner Ray on Mouse Trap
* Kevin G. Nunn on Mystery Rummy: Murders in the Rue Morgue
* Dale Donovan on The Omega Virus
* Darren Watts on Othello
* Charles Ryan on Pandemic
* Michelle Lyons on Pente
* Thomas M. Reid on Pictionary
* Nicole Lindroos on Pieces of Eight
* John Wick on Pit
* Matt Forbeck on Pokémon
* Robin D. Laws on Prince Valiant
* Stephen Glenn on Qwirkle
* Sébastien Pauchon on Ricochet Robots
* Peter Olotka on Risk
* Richard Breese on Rummikub
* Jesse Scoble on Scotland Yard
* Richard Garfield on Scrabble
* Mike Selinker on Set
* Rob Heinsoo on Small World
* Hal Mangold on Sorry!
* Jess Lebow on Stratego
* Eric Goldberg on Strat-O-Matic Baseball
* Andrea Angiolino on Survive!
* Karl Deckard on Thebes
* Dan Tibbles on Time's Up!
* Tom Wham on Trade Winds
* Susan McKinley Ross on TransAmerica
* Ray Winninger on Trivial Pursuit
* Leo Colovini on Twixt
* Matthew Kirby on Uno
* David Parlett on Upwords
* Lester Smith on Werewolf
* John Kovalic on Wits & Wagers
* Philip Reed on Yahtzee
* Kevin Wilson on Zendo
* Jess Hartley on Zooloretto

As you can see, I own and have played a lot of these games. Some of them, like Heroquest and Heroscape, appeal to my "rpg" gaming personality. Others, like Zooloretto, are wonderful games for playing with people who want to play a great game but aren't interested in "fantasy" themes. I'm surprised at the absence of some games from the list, but I am not surprised that any of the games listed made the list. This is because there are more than 100 Family Games worth playing if you have the time.

My Twins Turn Two Today.

Today is my daughters' second birthday and, as will become an annual tradition, the day will begin with this delightful song from one of the greatest films of all time.



I'll give you three guesses why and the first two don't count.

Happy Birthday William Shatner!

I have said many times, and I'll say it again, I am not a Star Trek fan. I am a William Shatner fan. I first watched Star Trek in syndication and I truly cut my Shatner teeth on T.J. Hooker. The man has entertained me in television, film (Free Enterprise is genius), computer games (the Scott Bennie written Star Trek adventure game episodes are wonderful), books, and in music. For most of my life, the words Shatner and "recorded music" brought to mind weird performances of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Rocket Man," and "Mr. Tambourine Man," (on the Transformed Man album) but thanks to Ben Folds, William Shatner released a wonderful record HAS BEEN. Prior to that album's release Shatner and Folds did a nice duet on Conan O'Brien.

Dungeons and Dragons Revealed -- Why I Wish You Tube Had Been Around During the 80s

Can you imagine what all those Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons types would have done and said if they saw this video representation of a Dungeons and Dragons gaming experience?



Key "easter egg" points for me were:

1) The map from the Dungeons and Dragons black boxed set.
2) Miniatures from the Dragon Strike introductory roleplaying set.
3) Miniatures and "doors" from the classic Heroquest game.
4) The Jack Black moment.
5) The Blair Witch moment.
6) The use of Boccob.

Through the Gates of Ennui: Sharing Timmis and Fierro's "The Silver Key" Adaption

Fans of HP Lovecraft know that film adaptations of HP Lovecraft stories have a shaky history at best. Scads of tales have been adapted, but very few have been remotely watchable. The only real gem of the bunch is the silent version of "The Call of Cthulhu" produced by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society. The film is well done and captures the haunting tones of Lovecraft's story by rejecting any impulse to modernize the narrative or special effects. The Historical Society produced the film not only as a period piece, they produced the film "as if" it had been produced in 1926. In doing so, they created a genuinely enjoyable and powerful work. I look forward to seeing their to eventually be completed adaptation of "The Whisperer in Darkness."

Making films of successful and haunting Lovecraftian tales is difficult enough, but how difficult would it be to adapt a tale that is at its core problematic? Conor Timmis and Gary Fierro are two independent filmmakers who were brave enough to answer this question with their adaptation of "The Silver Key" entitled "The Silver Key." Cthulhu aficionado Ken Hite has said of what makes the tale so problematic, it's lack of true dread, "even Lovecraft didn't believe that "the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is apathy," which is why there's a thriving horror literature, and tales of ennui are rapidly forgotten, dei gratia."

"The Silver Key" is a tale of ennui and not horror, but then again that seems to make it perfect for indie film fare.

The ten minute film is, like the HPLHS film, a silent film, but in this case they have updated the setting to the modern day. The use of daylight during the opening sequences of the film remove any weighty emotion introspection of the Randolf Carter character, haunting obsessive desires to retreat into childhood are better displayed at night, but the choice is a much less expensive choice than filming at night. There is a nice transition from bright to overcast/gloomy as the film progresses and couple of good uses of digital effects. One does wonder what the Yellow Sign is doing in the story, is the director implying that retreat into childhood leads to madness? The film runs 10 minutes. What do you think of it as an adaptation of this story?

You Should Be Reading "King of RPGs"

In his invaluable The Complete Guide to Manga¹, Jason Thompson writes, "Dragons and wizards, sword-wielding heroes with improbably large shoulder pads, terms such as levels and hit-points -- many of the trappings of Japanese fantasy can be traced to RPGs (role-playing games), the popular category of video and tabletop games that originated in America." Thompson follows this statement with a quick rundown of the development of the RPG field in Japanese culture and a discussion of the ascendancy of Video Game RPGs and Collectable Card Games and how tabletop RPGs enjoy a "small cult following in Japan, as in America." According to Thompson, roleplaying games influence on Manga as a whole is largely as a background influence, with few Manga being based specifically on roleplaying titles. There are some key exceptions, including the Record of Lodoss War series, that is based on the Japanese RPG Sword World by Ryo Mizuno and a couple of others, but for the most part RPGs influences the underlying archetypes of Manga fantasy without being a direct inspiration for the field.

Think of it in terms of the anime Dragon Ball Z's "Over 9000!".



Or even in terms of the cult classic martial arts film Kung Fu Cult Master's "if I have 6000 points, he has at least 10,000!.

Both of the above pieces of entertainment contain obvious roleplaying game references, but neither is a representation of a specific roleplaying game or aspect of roleplaying game culture, though R. Talsorian Games did release a roleplaying game based on Dragonball Z in 2000.

What has never really been done in Manga is a book about the people who play roleplaying games -- a kind of Manga equivalent of the Dead Gentleman The Gamers series of movies. Author Jason Thompson and illustrator Victor Hao have changed that with King of Rpgs. This book is Manga that is a send up of every aspect of the gaming hobby in a way that takes the meta-cognitive "tell the story of the adventure the group is roleplaying" storytelling of the Dead Gentleman productions and turns it on its head. King of RPGs isn't a book about how fun the stories gaming groups create during their playing sessions and how funny many of the common experience of the gaming group are. King of RPGs tells the story of gamers and gaming through the lens of a shōnen Sports Manga. These Manga take the competitive nature of athletics and transform them into wildly over the top stories that combine narrative tropes from Kung Fu films with "poverty to success" storylines. The formula, known as spo-kon is apologetically melodramatic and can be wildly humorous depending on the title. According to Thompson these Manga often feature stories where the hero, "through intense training...struggles to succeed in sports, although it is a long, hard road full of blood, sweat, and self-sacrifice. His coach or his father...is harsh and unforgiving, an archetype known as oni coach. Of course, he has the hero's best interests at heart...or at least the drive to win, no matter what the costs."

Take a second to imagine that description if you will. Imagine one of the players in your gaming group as the "poor struggling player" who through intense training will succeed in being the ultimate game player, although the path will be full of blood, sweat, and self-sacrifice. Imagine that you, the game master for the group, are the oni coach who must push this gamer to become the best he can be and to win at all costs. Imagine wild roleplaying sessions where you bring live snakes, throw dangerous objects at the players, and where the dangers the players face are as real as the ones their characters face. If you can imagine that, you can begin to imagine what Thompson and Hao are doing with King of Rpgs.

From the back of the book:

At the University of California, Escondido, no one would ever guess that freshman Shesh Maccabee is a hard-core gamer -- and in recovery to boot, following a court order, a wireless ban, and months of therapy (all because of one little seven-day Internet cafe episode). His friend Mike -- who personally prefers Japanese-console RPGs -- is tasked with keeping Shesh far away from any computer with access to World of Warfare.
Everything is going according to plan -- until a Ren Faire fangirl introduces them to the campus gaming club, where they meet Theodore, a fanatical tabletop game master whose single goal in life is to run the greatest Mages & Monsters game in the world. And there just happens to be room for two more players. Soon Shesh and Mike are dragged into the dungeon of hard-core gaming -- and cops, baboon men, Sri Lankan cave roaches, and Gothemon card collectors converge in the zaniest adventure that ever involved twenty-sided dice!

In the first volume of the series, Thompson and Hao manage to spoof, parody, and turn into dangerous life-threatening activity, almost all aspects of the gaming hobby. The only thing they leave out are the board gaming community with its fertile Diplomacy and Eurogame fields, but I am sure that those will have their day as well.

Victor Hao's artwork is dynamic and he manages to bring the wild visual storytelling one would expect in a Football or Baseball Manga into a representation of tabletop game playing with remarkable skill. Hao makes playing an RPG look like a visually exciting activity! Trust me, this is quite an accomplishment. Imagine turning the conversation in Plato's Republic into an action movie, not what they are describing the actual conversation. Not easy right. Hao could do it. I know, because he made sitting around a table chatting look fast, furious, and life-threatening! The panel to panel artistic storytelling is excellent. Hao's artwork leads the reader's eye naturally from panel to panel. Hao's Manga caricatures are well drawn throughout the book, though there are some pages/panels where I think he could have added more consistency to the line art. The monster designs are excellent and Hao does a wonderful job differentiating the "fantastic" sequences and hyper-action sequences from the "real world" sequences in a way that visually notifies the reader what emotional queues they should be following.

Thompson's writing on the book is strong. The reader immediately sympathizes with Shesh and his friend Mike, and we come to like their gaming group as well. Theodore Dudek, the young Game Master (read oni coach), of the book is a glorious creation. A creation that Thompson is so fond of that he even created a blog "written" by the character. True to form, Dudek's blog is not only a good "send up" of the Gygaxian personality GM from the 80s, it is also a very good game blog.². Thompson, a gamer who cut his teeth on the classic Erol Otis covered Red Box edition of Basic D&D, has a wide knowledge of the gaming hobby and is able to incorporate references to the tabletop RPG, live-action RPG, CCG, and Video Game genres seamlessly and fluidly into the narrative. He is also a master of taking what seems like a relatively mundane scenario and turning it into a nightmarishly wild experience for the participants. Thompson also pokes a bit of fun at the anti-D&D (and other games) sentiment that rears its head from time to time in the Culture Wars and has a character dedicated to eradicating game playing due to its harm to society. One wonders when/if Thompson and Hao will include a send up of the classic Chick Tract -- Dark Dungeons.



I cannot wait to see what they could do with the above panel.

I highly recommend the King of RPGs Manga for any gamer fan, or really for anyone who wants to read a funny over the top story about college kids. The book is quite fun. My only criticism is that we have to wait almost a year before the second volume is released. It only takes about half-an-hour to read the Manga, and it leaves you wanting more. It doesn't leave you wanting to wait a year! It's like Frito Lay potato chips, you want more than one!

To help tide us over. Thompson and Hao are offering a lot of behind the scenes information on the King of RPGs blog and have posted this hilarious Book Commercial for the Manga based on Sonny Chiba's classic Satsujin ken (aka The Streetfighter).

¹At least it's been invaluable to me as a non-Otaku. The book has served as a wonderful introduction and critical resource of recommendations for me as I explore what Manga I think might be worth investing my time and money in reading. It has become the Manga equivalent of Thomas Weisser's excellent Asian Cult Cinema. Weisser's book turned me from a fan of films like Hardboiled and The Killer into a full blown obsessive fan of films like Bride with White Hair, Swordsman 2, and Chinese Ghost Story. My friend Jay and I made several road trips to the Bay Area in order to buy Tai Seng videos that eventually covered a wide array of genres.Return to Text.

²Though for some reason Thompson doesn't always post comments from Dudek's imaginary nemesis (B N Nemecz) who stops by the site to harangue the lad. Nemecz put a little bit of work into a post responding to Dudek's "First Time DM'ing Tips: Part 1" that has yet to see the light of day. It should also be noted that Thompson's Dudek blog stirred a bit of a controversy on the RPG Bloggers network. Some readers felt that it was a "marketing ploy" and should be excluded from a network of gaming blogs, but other argued that the blog -- in addition to being a viral marketing attempt -- was a very good gaming blog in its own right. While I wouldn't confuse "Dudek's" opinions with Thompson's by assuming they are one and the same, "Dudek" brings up some interesting points for conversation.Return to Text.

Generic Movie: Hollywood as of 1980 or as of Its Origins?

Sean Mattie and I have been discussing, via email, the current fiscal/narrative conservatism that Hollywood seems to be exhibiting of late. His argument, and it is a common argument among critics, is that Hollywood is "no longer" in the business of making original productions and now busies themselves with adaptations of other works and long strings of sequels/remakes.

Having read The Day of the Locust (and seen the movie) and The Loved One (and seen that movie too), I am less critical of modern Hollywood than he is. I think that Hollywood has always been in the business of being risk averse and that the question to consider is whether the overall quality of entertainment offered today is less than that of any other given point in history. I am also of the opinion that quality is up compared to most eras of cinema, but that classic movies of the past are...well...Classic.

Speaking of The Day of the Locust, the thing I have always liked most about the Simpsons television show is how Homer Simpson continually visually references his namesake and his "big hands" in the majority of episodes. Every time Homer is choking Bart, you are getting a glimpse of the end of The Day of the Locust.

MBA Finals, not to be confused with NBA Finals

I am currently in the midst of Finals season for the quarter and posting has been light. Sorry, but my mind is currently filled with visions of Share of Voice and Net Present Value, and has been distracted from the world of popular culture.

Supercrew RPG Update

Back in January, I reviewed the independently published superhero roleplaying game "Supercrew." Overall, I gave the game a glowing review.

In conclusion, I think that this is an excellent game at a reasonable price. It isn't likely to replace Savage Worlds' Necessary Evil campaign in my game rotation any time soon, but I think I'll be trying to fit it in when some players don't show up for our regular sessions.

But there was one small thing that kept nagging at the back of my consciousness. I really wanted the game to have more online support. In fact, I wanted it to have any online support.

Well...the good folks at Kaleidoskop have updated their website so that it now includes a support site for players of the English language edition of the game. So far the site merely includes some sample pages from the game and character sheets for use in your home campaign, but it's a good start.

I'd still like to see some more support with regard to designing obstacles and villains for the heroes to face or an English language version of their Hjältegalleri which features a number of characters created using the system would be helpful. While it isn't difficult to figure out what Gravitationskontroll or Noll Friktion are in English, Osynlighetskappa is another matter entirely.

Tron: Legacy Releases Second Trailer

I mentioned in an earlier post that December 17, 2010 will be a very busy day at the movies. That day will see the release of The Smurfs, Yogi Bear, Tron: Legacy, and The Green Hornet. I am eagerly awaiting Tron: Legacy and I can already hear my twin daughters -- who will be 33 months this December -- trying to pressure me into taking them to see The Smurfs or Yogi Bear.

Late last year, Disney released a teaser trailer for Tron: Legacy that demonstrated how cool lightcycles look with modern computer effects. They looked stunning with 80s "super computer" visual effects, and the new ones are just as mind-blowing as the original effects where when they first came out.

I have always thought that the original Tron film did a great job of conveying basic computer concepts to a wide audience. The fact that it conveyed these concepts with visual storytelling concepts made it all that much better. I wonder how many Gen X computer programmers and video game designers were inspired by Tron? The inter-relatedness of programs in Tron, and its use of the "Master Control Program," predated the internet and the Windows operating system -- or the Apache HTTP Server Project -- but the world presented in the film "assumed" such advances would take place. The film forever shaped how I viewed "cyber landscapes" when I read the fiction of William Gibson or Bruce Sterling.

It's hard for sequels, especially sequels separated by decades, to recapture the magic of earlier episodes of a film series. In many ways, remakes have an easier time introducing entertainment to new audiences or rekindling fandom among old hands. Compare the Star Wars prequels and Bryan Singer's Superman Returns, and their reception, to JJ Abrams' Star Trek or the Battlestar Galactica television reboot. The "sequels" earned fan ire, and didn't fire the imagination of new generations in the same way as earlier entries had.

Tron: Legacy is taking the more difficult path. It is a direct sequel of the original film, though one where the "real time" between the two films is the same as the time that has passed during the films. The use of the narrative trope of a son looking for his lost father -- and his legacy -- is as old as Homer, and it is a good narrative technique for introducing new audiences to old ideas without overly irritating the older audience. One can forgive narrative exposition when it has a narrative purpose. I don't know how this story will play out, and one can certainly induct very little about the plot of the new Tron movie from the newest trailer, but the more I find out about the sequel the more I want to watch it.

Obviously, this is a film that I will have to see in 3D.

PULP 2.0 Press Publising BROTHER BLOOD

I don't normally cut and paste press releases on this site, but I am making an exception in this case. PULP 2.0's publisher Bill Cunningham is a friend of Cinerati and he has a strong vision with regards to promoting modern pulp fiction. Cunningham remembers well the bygone days when a young reader could pick up action packed fiction filled with references to "blazing twin .45s" where "sinister cabals" lurked around every corner, and where only heroes who were quick to pull the trigger could save the day. This was back before publishers decided that "Young Adult" readers "needed" heroes who "stupified" and "paralyzed" their opponents. The stakes were life and death, and the heroes meted out death with righteousness.

Cunningham's PULP 2.0 production company is releasing a series of book and other products that revel in this pulp spirit. In the tradition of the classic film Blacula, their first publication is the blaxploitation novel BROTHER BLOOD.

For Immediate Release:
Pulp 2.0 Press
Newpulpmedia@gmail.com





New Publisher Pulp 2.0 Press Officially Launches
with Author Donald F. Glut's
Lost Vampire Blaxploitation Novel BROTHER BLOOD

Company to specialize in quality pulp entertainment, reprinting rare classics and developing new properties
in the classic pulp form for the Horror, Scifi and Action-Adventure audiences


Los Angeles, CA - Bill Cunningham, the Mad Pulp Bastard (yes, that's his job title) of new publishing label Pulp 2.0 Press today announced its premiere pulp novel release, Brother Blood from author Donald F. Glut (The Empire Strikes Back novelization, TV's Transformers, The X-Men and comics' The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor). Brother Blood is a horror "blaxploitation" novel set in 1969 Los Angeles in and around the world famous landmarks of the Sunset Strip. Sexy Preston Duval is a sinister vampire stalking the streets of Los Angeles, building a vampire army to take over the city.

"Brother Blood is an old school pulp novel that captures the tone of the sort of material we'll be publishing here at Pulp 2.0 Press," said Cunningham. "Besides being a piece of pure entertainment, Blood captures the feeling of the time - having been originally written in 1969, three years before Blacula - and is premiering in english and novel form. It was published previously in the 70's in an edited, magazine form in German. "


Brother Blood will be published and distributed worldwide through Createspace's (www.creatspace.com) print-on- demand service and Amazon.com with low-cost digital editions available later for Kindle and other e-readers. Each print edition will feature "Extras" containing behind-the-scenes information, articles, photo essays and other exclusive entertainment.

In addition to collectible print editions for all of their releases, Pulp 2.0 Press has launched a promotion program for each of their titles. Starting with Brother Blood each Pulp 2.0 title will also feature signed extremely limited edition cover proofs that will be available free to only five lucky readers who are the first ones to send in pictures with themselves holding the book. Winners will be posted on the company's Facebook page: (www.facebook.com/pulp2ohpress).


In addition to the signed cover proof promotions, each title will be supported with various types of merchandise geared toward fans - posters, t-shirts and branded novelty items. Quality pulp entertainment items that fans can easily acquire.

"The whole company came about because so many cool pulp and exploitation novels that I wanted to read had fallen out of print and were really hard to track down. I figured that if the only way I was going to be able to read these books in affordable editions was to publish them - then I would do that. I tracked Don (Glut) down and licensed several of his books - more of which we'll announce soon - and got underway."

Cunningham added, " Since that initial startup we've added several artists and writers to the mix as well as a web marketing manager. We've all signed on to the idea of creating the kind of books we as fans want to see and figuring the best way to make pulp fiction fans happy. As a youngster I remember the classic Famous Monsters magazine and how editor Forrest J. Ackerman used to get monster fans involved. Those fans eventually grew up to become the very professionals they were enamored with in the first place. You'll recognize some of the names: John Carpenter, Joe Dante and yes, Donald F. Glut. Thanks to the internet and meeting fans at conventions we can do the same and connect them with quality genre entertainment more than ever before - hence, the name and the mission Pulp 2.0. "

# # #


For more information, or to schedule an interview please contact:

newpulpmedia@gmail.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pulp2ohpress
Twitter: @madpulpbastard
www.pulp2ohpress.com
www.donaldfglut.com

Brother Blood
By Donald F Glut, cover art by Nik Macaluso from Pulp 2.0 Press

The classic vampire "blaxploitation" novel from author Donald F. Glut (THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, TRANSFORMERS). A vampire stalks 1969's groovy Sunset Strip. The police are clueless but a trio of true believers know the horror in their midst. Written in the same style as the original Dracula, Brother Blood is a bloodsucker for the Groovy Age.


Publication Date:Feb 05 2010
ISBN/EAN13:1450576397 / 9781450576390
Page Count: 372
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 5.25" x 8"
Language: English
Color:Black and White
Related Categories: Fiction / Horror
Retail: $18.99

Some Thoughts on Tunnels and Trolls -- Why It Matters

Those who play Role Playing Games as a hobby know that it isn't always easy to find a group of like minded enthusiasts in order to form a regular "gaming group." As the hobby has expanded, gamers have been able to scratch the RPG itch by playing single player computer RPGs like Baldur's Gate and Planescape: Torment, video game console rpgs from Dragon Warrior to Dragon Age, or Massive Multiplayer RPGs like World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons: Online. (You can watch videos for some of these games below.)

There hasn't always been such a rich market of available distractions for the gaming hobbyist. In fact, if you were a gamer in the early 1980s -- particularly a young gamer for whom college was a mere aspiration -- there were really only three solutions. You could used the "random solo dungeon" tables in the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, you could play a Fighting Fantasy Gamebook, or you could play a Tunnels and Trolls solo adventure. As I mentioned earlier, if it hadn't been for Tunnels and Trolls your only option would have been the "random solo dungeon" tables in the DMG.

Tunnels and Trolls provided a much needed service for the gaming community with its solo adventures. Not only did they provide the inspiration for the excellent Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks, but the T&T solos provided hours of entertainment in and of themselves. They also demonstrated how the T&T rules system was an ideal RPG system for solo play. T&T's rules were simple, quick, and abstract, three things that are essential if one is trying to create a game for solitaire play. The early T&T solos were fairly crude in their presentation and content, particularly when compared to the Fighting Fantasy (and later Lone Wolf) Gamebooks, but as first movers they created a wonderful sub-category of adventure gaming -- one that I still enjoy today.

Buffalo Castle, the first solo module, was written by Rick Loomis of Flying Buffalo Games and is a very basic -- though sometimes wildly chaotic -- dungeon crawl. The castle's denizens don't make much sense, and "your" motivation for adventure is pure "profiteering" of the kind common in early RPG adventures. But there is something to be said for entering a room that Tardis-like is larger on the inside than the castle that surrounds it -- a room filled with a herd of buffalo. One imagines that Loomis' work in the Play-by-Mail marketplace may have been a part of his inspiration in drafting a solo adventure.



Ken St. Andre's Deathtrap Equalizer Dungeon quickly adapted the solo module format in a manner that attempted to increase repeat play. The module is best described as a "Gonzo Romp" adventure where death or success can happen at the turn of a page, and where the author punishes readers almost on a whim.

It wasn't until Ken St. Andre's Arena of Khazan and Michael Stackpole's City of Terrors that the solo reached a level of sophistication that made replay not merely fun, but more rewarding that playing through the adventure a single time. I still find myself returning to the Arena of Khazan in the hopes of attaining wealth and glory -- or freedom if I happened to have been "recruited" as a new gladiator like Spartacus in the new Starz TV series.

The solos are worth a look and a play through both as artifacts of the history of RPGs and as experiences on their own -- especially the later modules where narrative components become more important than the first few. I've never quite been convinced that T&T works well as a "group" game, its combat system lacks a kind of "cinematic granularity" that feeds the imaginations of the players with whom I have typically played. But I think that it has some core elements that could be translated into a great group game. This is especially true of T&T's underlying "Saving Throw" system, which I'll be examining in a couple of upcoming posts.



While D&D's influence on computer/video games is undeniable. One should not overlook the influence that T&T and its solo adventures had on that field either. Ken St. Andre worked on the classic video game Wasteland, which was the inspiration for the Fallout series of video game rpgs. Ian Livingstone, of the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks series, went on to develop a video game version of his own Deathtrap Dungeon with a little video game company he co-founded. It's called Eidos. Maybe you've heard of it. They did a little game called Tomb Raider.

FFG to Release Battles of Weteros: A Battlelore Game

Fantasy Flight Games has mated George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire and Richard Borg's Battlelore customizable Wargame and created Battles of Westeros: A Battlelore Game. The many brain cells that I have devoted to these two wonderful entertainment products have formed an endorphin mosh pit and are bashing into each other in celebration.

I can really think of no two products that would better mesh together than the fictional world of Westeros and Richard Borg's Command and Colors offshoot Battlelore. Given that A Song of Ice and Fire is filled with echoes of the Wars of the Roses and the Hundred Year's War, and that Battlelore is a Fantasy adaptation of the Hundred Year's War (and other Medieval conflicts, the combination is staggeringly obvious.

This should be a pairing without possible criticism...yet somehow Christian Peterson manages to create controversy in what should be a seamless win.

As I mentioned above, Borg's Command and Colors game engine creates the mechanical backbone for the Battlelore customizable Wargame. Command and Colors is an easy to learn, yet extremely deep, simulation engine that combines quick play with tactical depth. The engine has been used in several successful, and fun, wargames, including: Battlecry (my favorite Civil War game), Command and Colors: Ancients (arguably the best "ancients" wargame ever as it appeals to both the veteran and the neophyte), and Memoir '44 (an excellent WWII wargame). This list includes some of the most successful wargames ever produced, and with good reason given the strength of the Command and Colors system. It is this system's brand that gives the name Battlelore the premium that it has.



Sadly, according to this interview, "The classic BattleLore game is based on Richard Borg’s Command and Colors game system, while Battles of Westeros is an entirely new engine, one that is significantly more involved than C&C and more in tune with FFG’s design principles."

How one can call a game a Battlelore game when it doesn't share a rules set is beyond me. It seems that Peterson is attempting to get the financial premium that the brand Battlelore brings, without bringing the play style that that premium promises. There are likely a couple of reasons for this.

First, as Peterson says, FFG wants a game that is more in tune with FFG's design principles. FFG games have their own brand preconceptions, and deserve a substantial premium on their own. Games like Descent, Doom, World of Warcraft, Runebound, and Middle Earth Quest share qualities and design philosophies. Wanting to produce a game that shares these philosophies and thus maintains the FFG brand is important to be sure. Given the strength of Tide of Iron, FFGs excellent customizable WWII wargame, one wonders why they didn't brand Battles of Westeros as a Tide of Iron game. This is especially true given the fact that the game is going to have significant differences from its related "brand" and will likely share more with Tide of Iron than Battlelore.

Second, Richard Borg owns the copyright on the Command and Colors system that underlies the Battlelore game. Even though FFG owns the right to produce Battlelore games, they likely didn't want to have to pay Borg for other products in a related line. The easiest way to avoid that is to create a new rules set while still leveraging the brand identity due to some stylistic similarities. Contrary to "gamer knowledge" it is likely that the mechanics of games can in fact be copyrighted and FFG is being smart in not attempting to lift the mechanics and move them into their own game in an attempt to cheat Borg out of his money. Better to create a new system than engage in legal battles. While I might criticize FFG for "misapplying" the Battlelore brand, I can praise them for respecting copyright.

As you might guess, it is my belief that the Battles of Westeros game will feel more like a fantasy version of Tide of Iron than a Westeros version of Battlelore, but I don't think that is a bad thing at all. Tide of Iron is a wonderful game that holds its own against Memoir '44 with regard to flexibility and customization. Though Tide of Iron is more Squad Leader Lite than Battlelore's evolution of We the People style card driven game play.

Regardless, I'll be certain to purchase the game when it comes available -- and this is given the fact that I have committed myself to severely restricting new game purchases this year.

Bitterness in the Gaming Hobby

In certain gaming circles, the name Lorraine Williams is synonymous with "Evil" -- others reserve such ire for Gnomes. While I have read many blog/bulletin board posts excoriating Williams, I have never been of the opinion that she was bad for TSR or even bad for the roleplaying game hobby.

Largely, this stems from the fact that Williams' tenure at TSR is one that I consider a Golden Age of rpg gaming goodness. Under Williams' management TSR published the Forgotten Realms setting, and excellent Buck Rogers roleplaying game by Mike Pondsmith of Cyberpunk fame, Al-Qadim, the D&D Gazetteer series, the Advanced Marvel Superheroes rpg, and the highly under-rated Rocky and Bullwinkle rpg -- something that was aimed at bringing new people into the hobby. Meanwhile, Gary Gygax was making the unplayable Cyborg Commando at New Infinities Productions. There are those who blame Williams for Gygax's being forced out of the company, but I believe that had more to do with the Blumes than with Williams herself. I also think that Williams hard fought battles to preserve the D&D brand, and all other TSR brands, were just good management -- not good PR, but good for the company.

I also believe that Williams only had a limited understanding of the gaming marketplace. She understood where gaming was in the late 80s and early 90s, but (not being a gamer herself) she had no clear vision for how to respond to the emergence of Magic: the Gathering. Her response was an explosion of rpg product and a rushed collectible card game response. The explosion of rpg product was high quality -- Birthright and Planescape were remarkable settings -- but the prolific pace of publication, combined with a brand diluting low quality card game, put more product on the market than the market could bear. In that way, she is also responsible for the implosion of TSR as a company a decade after she took charge. It would have been nice to see someone else take over the company after 5 - 6 years of Williams running the company.

The bitterness between the Gygax camp and Williams isn't the only case of deep bitterness and ire in the gaming community. I was recently reading some back issues of Interplay magazine, Metagaming's house organ after Steve Jackson left the company. I was amazed at the venom they were directing at Steve Jackson. Not because the split was a genial split, but by the obsessive nature of it. Metagaming seemed obsessed with mocking Steve Jackson every chance they had. Ironically, fans of GURPS -- and most modern gamers for that matter -- are likely oblivious to this deeply felt hatred. The Williams is "Evil" meme has lasted decades, but the Steve Jackson is a "Turkey" meme died long ago. Unlike the Gygax/Williams affair, Jackson leaving Metagaming lead to that company's rather quick demise. Steve Jackson was a font of ideas, while Metagaming was wallowing in bitterness. GURPS may be, and I certainly think it is, a direct descendant of "The Fantasy Trip" and Steve Jackson's early board games might have been indistinguishable in appearance from Metagaming's microgames, but the fact is that Steve Jackson and his company were coming out with quality new products while Metagaming was living in the past.

Metagaming has two famous spoofs of Steve Jackson Games material one is their Fist Full of Turkeys game and the other is a spoof of Steve Jacksons excellent One Page Bulge called One Page Bilge.



It should be noted that one of the things that makes Metagaming's protests against Jackson so purile is that Jackson was one of the leading voices advocating for designer rights in the gaming industry. Eventually his desire to see designers properly compensated led to him forming his own company, but the fact is that gaming is one of the last venues where the creators see almost no benefit for their creations due to the "work for hire" environment in gaming. People like Wolfgang Baur deserve credit, and ownership, in products like Dark*Matter, it's the only way to guarantee high quality and it is the right thing to do from a PR perspective. Imagine if designers had options on the systems they created. The Pinnacle Entertainment Group edition of Torg would be more than a pipe dream, and GURPS might be called The Fantasy Trip.

Hulu Recommendation Friday: The Real Housewives of Orange County

I can't help it. I love this show. You must watch it.

The "cast" has changed significantly over the past few years, but this is one of the most entertaining realitoaperas ever created. The spin off shows each have their appeal, and their own craziness, but there is something that keeps bringing me back to OC.

One of the things that makes this season in particular so engaging is that it is the first time that you can see "reality" fatigue so blatantly on display. When the Vicki started stressing how she wouldn't spend any time with the current cast if it weren't for the show, I knew that this season we'd begin to see some real human drama -- and we have. Vicki's family is facing a genuine medical problem, whether it is a crisis or not has yet to be discovered. The combination of Vicki's need for constant attention and historic lack of empathy, is disappearing as she has spent time healing her marriage and wraps her mind around what her daughter is going through. Add to this the financial difficulties some of the other families are facing, and this show is shifting from catty conflict to real pathos inspiring drama.

This isn't to say that there isn't catty conflict...would it be a "Real Housewives" show if there wasn't?

Why Does the Press Hate D&D?

Between 1979 and 1992 there were at least 80 news articles written about the "evils" of Dungeons and Dragons. Obsession with role playing games as a cause of social ills dates back to the disappearance of Dallas Egbert III and the myths that he and his friends played Dungeons and Dragons in the steam tunnels of Michigan State University.

Role playing games, like video games and rock music, are one of the key media bogeyman when it comes to attempts to find "reasons" for significantly aberrant social behavior. In some respect, this is an understandable reaction. Why people commit suicide or murder is, thankfully, a mystery to most people and we want to find reasons why individuals would behave in a manner so far removed from our own experiences. It is only when we learn of the actual motives, or underlying psychological issues, of a particular case that these things actually begin to make sense. But before we know those real causes, we still look for answers -- quick and easy answers.

Role playing games are often one of the things pointed to first, and it's getting a little boring and stale. When Patricia Pulling blamed role playing games after her son committed suicide, role playing games were a relatively new -- and little understood -- hobby. One can to a certain degree excuse here zealotry and misinterpretation of the hobby.

What one cannot excuse is articles like the one posted in yesterday's Boston Herald. In the article, Laurel J. Sweet uses Amy Bishop's past experiences playing "Dungeons and Dragons" as a framing device to associate the kind of shooting rampage murder committed on that campus with another murder that occurred a decade ago. To quote:

Accused campus killer Amy Bishop was a devotee of Dungeons & Dragons - just like Michael “Mucko” McDermott, the lone gunman behind the devastating workplace killings at Edgewater Technology in Wakefield in 2000.

The Sweet article is awkwardly worded, poorly constructed, and pairs unrelated paragraphs next to one another in a manner that might confuse a reader that statements written about Micheal McDermott were about Dr. Bishop. There is little to no actual research in the piece, only a couple of hyperbolic statements written by Sweet -- and one out of context, but accusatory, statement by an unnamed source. The article is a demonstration of everything that is currently wrong with news reporting.

It's first problem is that it is sensationalist. Like Kirk Douglas in Billy Wilder's classic Ace in the Hole, Sweet is creating a framework that has little to do with actual events -- or in providing any kind of public service -- rather Sweet's intent is obviously to garner hits (and sell papers) through a tangential connection.

Second, the article uses unnamed sources for all of its "evidence" linking Dr. Bishop's alleged crime with her role playing. Add to this the fact that the source's quote is out of context and bizarre, and one wonders how an editor let this article go to print. The proof from the source that Bishop and her husband were "devotees" of Dungeons and Dragons?

“They even acted this crap out,” the source said.

Wow! Now that is a substantive, fact filled, meaningful quote by a respectable source.

Oh, wait. No it isn't. It is a hack job, yellow journalism sentence, that implies sinister doings, but contains nothing substantially informative. What does the source mean that Bishop "acted this crap out?" Did Dr. Bishop play live action role playing games? Was she a member of an improvisational theater that acted out role playing sessions? Is the source a hack and slash role player who found Dr. Bishop's "in character" role playing disturbing during sessions he/she participated in? None of these questions are answered. In fact, no questions one could think to ask about the circumstances or the source are answered. The quote is just left floating in space for the reader to make huge inductive leaps.

Third, the writing of the piece is just genuinely bad -- as in poor. The logic strings from one paragraph to another are nonexistent. It appears as if this article is just a quick filler piece meant to appear topical, by referencing the recent Wisconsin decision regarding prisoner's and their "right" to play role playing games in prison.

One could guess at Sweet's familiarity with role playing games in general, and D&D in particular, by the inclusion of one word. Sweet describes Dr. Bishop as a "devotee" of Dungeons and Dragons. The Oxford English Dictionary definition of devotee is broad enough to include players of a game, but such devotion would have to be "zealous devotion." As such, it would be rare and one would have to build a case to demonstrate zealous devotion. Sweet makes no such case, just provides loosely worded hyperbole.

If I lived in the Boston area, I might invite Sweet to participate in one of my bi-weekly gaming sessions with friends. Alas, I live in Los Angeles were there is a large industry filled with many people who have played role playing games -- most of whom are better writers than Sweet.

Hmm... Sweet's poorly written column gives me an idea for a "predictive" column myself.

The following is a joke, it may not be funny but it is a joke.

BOSTON HERALD JOURNALIST LAUREL SWEET AT RISK OF COMMITTING MURDER

Future murderer Laurel J Sweet is a devotee of Journalism - just like J. Gregory Robertson, a man police say shot and killed 56-year-old Ralph Colon of Hartford, during a confrontation on Robertson's third-floor fire escape.

Sweet, now an Award-winning court and crime reporter who has been featured in the ABC miniseries "Boston 24/7" and the 9-11 documentary motion picture "Looking For My Brother," fell in love with journalism at an early age and has written for a number of newspapers. One source said that she was obsessed with awards and gaining readership by writing scandalous articles, researched or not.

“Sweet will write anything to get more readers,” the source said.

When questioned about it yesterday, Kevin Convey, Editor of the Boston Herald, dismissed tabloid journalism as “a dying medium. In the future, we'll need better researched news since the internet allows stories to be challenged in real time.”

Robertson is a a former Hartford Courant reporter and editor, but Convey said he never met him. Police seized two copies of the New York Times Style Manual from Robertson's house.

The popular profession has a long history of controversy. After a 30 second Google search, this reporter discovered an expose by Iowahawk which stated, "Accounts of media psychopathy, while widespread, have until now been largely anecdotal. In order to provide a more focused and systematic study of the crisis, Iowahawk researchers set out to identify and tabulate criminal arrests and convictions of current and former journalists. While by no means comprehensive, this 10-minute project yielded a grim picture of a once-proud profession now in the grips of tragic, drunk, violent, child-raping rage."

Speaking of Captain America Controversies -- Hulu Recommentation Friday: CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990)

There has recently been a bit of a row regarding Captain America (see here and here). Some conservatives are irked that the good Captain, and his friend The Falcon, are uncomfortable with a Marvel Universe political movement that bears similarity to the Tea Party movement.

I'd like to inform those conservatives out there who think that this is "new" or a "big deal" that they are wrong. While it could be argued that someone who was frozen in 1945 and who awoke in the late 60s (or early 00s depending on the retcon) might be conservative to the point of being out of touch with most modern Americans, but Marvel has never written the character that way -- nor are they likely to start anytime soon.

If you look at the history of Captain America's career since 1972, you see the following pattern. Captain America quits in disgust over Nixon's behavior. Cap retakes the mantle when Jimmy Carter is elected. Cap is ostracized by the Reagan administration, then fired and replaced by someone more conservative (today's USAgent) during the first Bush Administration. Captain America retakes the mantle during the Clinton Administration. During the Bush Administration, Cap fluctuates between favoring soft or hard power -- depending on the writer and the proximity of 9/11 -- before he is shot and killed after leading a Civil War against government superhero registration policies. Cap is "resurrected" during the Obama administration.



Most of these decisions were made for one of the following reasons. Either there were real world issues that Marvel wanted to engage in their comics to give them depth, or they needed to reassert the value of the Captain America brand and stop having "Nomad" (or "The Captain") wander Route 66. If you're conservative and you wanted Captain America to represent your political philosophy...too bad. He doesn't. He's a comic book character.

It isn't controversial and it isn't new. If you weren't so busy trying to be offended, you might just notice that the stories where Cap quits/is fired/is killed are some of the best runs in the history of the series. They demonstrate the depth of the character and his convictions.

Oh, and since when is pointing out the dangers of "movement" driven populist democracy Un-American? I thought the whole shared powers structure that the Founding Fathers set up was due to concerns with the power of faction and "fear" of majority faction.

WHAT IS CONTROVERSIAL...is that HULU watchers have given the 1980s movie version of CAPTAIN AMERICA 3 stars. 3 stars?! Really?! But it's terrible.

Now on the iPhone: Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks -- WARLOCK OF FIRETOP MOUNTAIN

Searching my through my favorite interwebs sites the other day, I stopped by the Official Fighting Fantasy gamebooks website and discovered, much to my pleasure, that Wizard Books was releasing several of the Fighting Fantasy titles as iPhone applications. The first book in the series to see release was the classic Warlock of Firetop Mountain, the book that started the whole Fantasy Gamebook phenomenon back in the 1980s when I was a wee lad.

The Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks were a book series created by Games Workshop co-founders Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone (who are that rare breed in the gaming industry game designers and keen businessmen) that combined the reader interactivity of the Choose Your Own Adventure series of books with the game mechanics of early role playing games. Readers of Ian Livingstone's Dicing with Dragons (Signet), a book Livingstone wrote to introduce audiences to the role playing hobby, it comes clear that Livingstone was inspired by the solo adventures offered by Flying Buffalo in support of the Tunnels and Trolls role playing game.

Here's how Livingstone describes Tunnels and Trolls, one of four games he thought "worthy" of introducing neophytes to:

If Tunnels & Trolls (T&T) did not have one special feature (apart from the general ease of play), no doubt it would have achieved little in the way of popularity -- indeed, its author claims that it was originally designed purely for his own entertainment and that of his friends. Role-playing is generally a gregarious pastime -- one person is the referee and designer of the locations to be explored, and several more are needed as players. However, many people are keen to engage in role-playing but for one reason or another cannot participate in groups of like-minded enthusiasts. An isolated geographical location or lack of free time or transport, or work involving unsociable hours can all conspire to produce the solitaire role-player. In common with some other RPGs, Tunnels & Trolls has a considerable number of ready-to-use adventures, but, unlike most others, which are generally designed for normal group play, most of the Tunnels & Trolls adventures are specifically designed for solitaire play, and thus fill a distinct need in the role-playing market.

Emphasis mine.

Two things emerge from reading this paragraph. First, that Livingstone admires what St. Andre accomplished with T&T -- both in simplicity of rules and in innovation. Second, that Livingstone looks at role playing as an industry. That paragraph reads like part of a SWOT analysis someone might write as background for the introduction of a new product line. Livingstone and Jackson have always been at the forefront of new technologies when it came to integrating role playing and media. Interactive 900 line rpg adventures, video games, books, mass market paperbacks, board games, and miniatures war games are all in the line of products in which they have been directly involved. Now we can add to that long list -- iPhone application translations of their gamebooks.

While Livingstone and Jackson may have received inspiration from St. Andre's T&T both in the idea of a solo adventure market and the importance of simple rules, their Fantasy Gamebooks truly took T&T's solo adventures to the next level. Where the solo adventures by Flying Buffalo typically came in around 32 - 64 pages, the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks were the size of full length paperback novels -- around 220+ pages -- something that enabled them to add greater narrative to the stories making for "deeper" interactive experiences.



Warlock of Firetop Mountain, which was drafted under the working title Magic Quest, was the first Fighting Fantasy Gamebook released into the market. It featured very simple rules, later products demonstrated how "deep" these simple rules were, and a relatively simple story. You were a warrior in search of wealth and glory who has climbed to the peak of Firetop Mountain in order to claim the treasure of the Warlock Zagor. You didn't have a very heroic motivation, and the world wasn't very well developed. The book was very much an early D&D style module translated into solo play. Go into a hole, kick down doors, kill things, and take their stuff. At least that's how it seems at first.

You see, there is only one real "solution" to the book -- other books in the series would have several possible solutions -- and it wasn't an easy solution to discover. You had to map your progress, especially considering there is a maze in the middle of the adventure. If you map it, the maze isn't complex, but if you don't...the frustration is substantive.



The latest application for the iPhone is a direct translation of this first gamebook -- a very good direct translation. I was able to use my old hand drawn map as I played through the encounters, and thus was able to find some nice enhancements and some minor glitches in the game.

I have to say that after playing one of these as an app, I'm going to buy whatever books they release in this format. It works better than flipping back and forth, and I can't cheat when fighting the battles -- it maximizes the play aspect by keeping track of all of the combat information and your equipment. The app limits your options to those you genuinely have available to you and you can't flip back and forth to see which choice is superior. You really have to play the game as it was designed.



I also appreciated the way that the app incorporated and enhanced the artwork from the original book. The app has the original line artwork from the book, but if you touch the images they get enlarged and become color images. The transformation from line art to color shaded art work makes for some very impressive images. The ghoul and the cyclops statue were two of my favorite images in the original, and they look even better in color.



As much as I loved playing through, I did notice two significant flaws -- likely corrected in the current updates. When I "lost a point of Skill" after looking into a portrait of the Warlock, I performed an action which should have returned the skill point to me -- in fact it should have returned up to two lost Skill -- but my skill remained at the lower rating. Additionally, when I acquired a magic sword, I was prompted to discard my current sword -- which was correct -- but the only sword listed in my inventory was the new magic sword and I had to discard it. This didn't affect game play, as the I still received the bonus for the magic sword even though I wasn't "technically" in possession of the weapon. These are two significant, but not overwhelming glitches in the game.

If you like Fantasy and want a fun application that is good for quite a few replays, you should purchase Warlock of Firetop Mountain for your iPhone. If you don't have an iPhone, you should buy the paperback which was re-released last September. On February 10th, the second Fighting Fantasy App Deathtrap Dungeon was released -- and bought by me.

BRAVESTARR -- Hulu Recommendation Friday

The cartoons of my youth were both wonderful and mildly disturbing. I have an active love hate relationship with the Filmation animation formula. Essentially, the formula is Hero (male or female), Competent Sidekick of Opposing Gender, Cool Animal/Anthropomorpic Animal Sidekick, and Annoying Comic Relief (Snarf/Orko). This hero faced a villain who was somehow in league with "dark forces."

To be fair, only about half their shows used this formula, but the character archetypes they created created the template for other companies cartoon templates as well. Would we have had Thundercats with Mumm Ra if we hadn't had Skeletor? I think not.

The writers and animators who worked using this framework had a seemingly limitless ability to apply the template to almost any genre. It worked well with the Planetary Romance narrative style of the He-Man, She-Ra, and Blackstar shows as well as for the Space Western format Bravestarr -- and it later worked for non-Filmation shows like the aforementioned ThunderCats.

As much as I liked the cartoons, there were a couple of things that bothered me. I despised, and still do, the lame comic relief characters. I blame Orko for Jar Jar Binks. The shows also had an obsession with presenting "moral lessons" that were often too heavy handed to be taken seriously. Even a 10 year old knows when he/she is being talked down to regarding moral choices.

Those things aside, the cartoons were imaginative and entertaining. I could have recommended the He-Man series that is archetypal for the genre, but I have a fondness for BRAVESTARR. The show came late in the decade and features the voice acting of Peter Cullen (Optimus Prime) as the anthropomorphic horse sidekick .30-.30. How awesome is that? The sidekick is named after rifle ammunition!