Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Table of Contents
If you have any interest in the Grognardia anthologies I'm in the process of putting together, follow the link below to take a look at the proposed table of contents for Volume 1, which will cover the first year (March 2008–March 2009) of the blog. If you have any strong feelings about a post from that period I've overlooked, now's the time to let me know.
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Are you interested in including any of your Escapist stuff? I remember your pre-history of the game especially. Also, the Retrospective on Star Frontiers probably should be included. I never played but everyone else I knew did, and I think it is an important nod to the "also-ran" status generically of science fiction/fantasy, whereas Traveller (owing to its high quality and independent success) simply speaks to a different facet of gaming back then.
ReplyDeleteI don't own The Escapist material, so I can't easily include it. The Retrospective posts will probably get their own separate volume, collecting them all in one place.
DeleteI also think you should have some of your Pulp Fantasy Library reviews included, especially ones like Deryni Rising, which illustrate how the seeds of the worst elements of modern "Narrative" gaming were present way back when. The example in that review is the G.R.R. Martin flaw in GoT: historical fiction whose history is unaffected by the bolted on fantastical skinsuit.
ReplyDeleteThe Pulp Fantasy Library posts will almost certainly get a separate volume all to themselves at some point.
DeleteOooh. I knew you had Basic and Expert in mind, but that would make a lovely Companion...of course that also means that you will have to eventually compile an entire Immortals edition of Grognardia, collecting all the unrelated materials, broken links, housekeeping and outdated or irrelevant events scattered throughout the decades.
Delete40 posts will make volume 1 pretty short, right? I'm guessing 60 pages or so?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea yet. There will be introductory material included, along with commentary, notes, and an index, all of which will probably increase the page count. Even so, I don't imagine it'll be more than 100 pages total.
DeleteIt'll make it more like a 'zine, which is cool. These will be available as hardcopy, right?
DeleteYes, there will definitely be hardcopies.
DeleteI don't think you can *legally* include any comments from people without their explicit written consent that it would be ok to include them in another context. Which will be hard enough if even impossible with all the 'anonymous' posters, or even the 'john doe' posters that have left you no way whatsoever to contact them in order to ask them for permission.
ReplyDeleteJust so.
DeleteI’m less convinced you couldn’t quote some on context without exhaustive rights disclosures. But one thing that would need some thought is the illustrations, such as the book covers that you frequently used.
DeleteConsider including one Halloween Post in each edition. The "Game for Grown-ups" post was great in 2008, and also I think is foundational in rounding out the intersection of CoC, D&D, and Traveller. It also has a great multi-layered example of Grognardia's deep underlying theme of the "Abandoned Labyrinth vs. the Popular Pathway" (with both CoC's necessary popularization of the Adventure Path and it's reliance on Derelethian Mythos to "systematize" the game), and also ties to your deep meditation on the Scrappy Doo/Mentzer Destroyer/Savior Dilemma.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I forgot to include "A Game for Grown-Ups!" Thanks for pointing out that omission.
DeleteI also remember reading "A Blast from the Past" and it was both a brilliant and funny little window into the Silver Age, an early portent of the decades-later OSR, an illustration of the "Alignment as Canary in the Mine" and a sort of meta-credential to your own authority on the subject matter.
ReplyDeleteThat letter is basically your diploma from Grognard U. And hilarious.
Shouldn't you have "Best Cover Ever" in there?
ReplyDeleteMaybe — but then the issue becomes whether I should (or can) reproduce the PHB cover to go along with it.
DeleteYour post would still have value even without the cover, since anyone can find it online. But you could ask WotC for permission. It's a great post.
DeleteFair enough! I may have to look into the matter.
DeleteOh! Building a Better Thief (Part I), at the very least. The Thief dilemma is fundamental to the basics.
ReplyDelete[As an aside, I always thought of the Thief as an "unclassed" character - basically someone with no background in magic nor training in combat who had devoted his initial development to other more normal survival techniques: begging, swiping, avoiding, paying attention. As he sought his fortune, he *might* develop as an amateur fighter out of necessity, but would primarily grow in his natural survival and fortune-seeking instincts as he honed them. I think this is because the literary model I had in mind for the class was not the Grey Mouser but the conscripted burglar Bilbo Baggins. He learned how to use Sting out of necessity but despite having the advantage of invisibility still managed to get himself knocked out for most of the fighting.]
For your consideration:
ReplyDeleteHCE
Alien (1979) as a Traveller Movie (this can supplement both your Alien review and your exploration of Traveller backgrounds)
My Favorite Monsters
Level Titles