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Month: April 2011

The Dying Earth RPG Available Again

The Dying Earth RPG Available Again

the-dying-earthPelgrane Press has announced that one of my favorite role playing games, The Dying Earth, is available again after several years in limbo.

The Dying Earth is, of course, based on the famed fantasy books by Jack Vance, including The Dying Earth, The Eyes of the Overworld, Cugel’s Saga, and Rhialto the Marvellous. The RPG was written by Robin Laws, John Snead, and Peter Freeman, and originally published by Pelgrane Press  in 2001.

I’ve never actually played The Dying Earth role playing game.  It appeared after I moved from Ottawa to Chicago and left my gaming group behind, and before my three children stopped throwing the dice at each other and got old enough to game with. So why is one of my favorites?

Because there’s plenty to enjoy about The Dying Earth RPG, even if you never use the rules to guide your dice arm. The support materials were superb, especially the accompanying magazine, The Excellent Prismatic Spray — whose contributors numbered Gary Gygax, Robin D Laws, Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Keith Baker, and many others — and which published seven fat issues before following the game into limbo.

beyond-the-mountains2Much of the content of the magazine and the additional support material were written in studied imitation of Vance’s witty and erudite style, and made terrific reading.

Who knows why the game was out of print for so long?  A licensing issue, most likely.  But it’s finally back, and Pelgrane has wasted no time gearing up the presses again, releasing the first new supplement in several years: Beyond The Mountains of Magnatz by Ian Thomson, a picaresque series of adventures for Cugel-level characters:

You may have thought your adventurous rogues trapped in the barren north until the sun went dark. But no, the former Lords of Cil are on the move again. The adventurers must evade becoming victim to the ancient menace of Magnatz in the sinister town of Vull, progress through greater and lesser challenges, both natural & magical, as they struggle across the savage mountains, explore strange hospitality in the valley of the mighty Pharesm, and survive lands populated by an army of basilisks, before winning free to the civilized lands of the east.

Our recent coverage of Pelgrane Press includes:

When the End of the World is a Mercy Killing: Cthulhu Apocalypse for Trail of Cthulhu
Mythos Expeditions for Trail of Cthulhu
Experience the Epic Madness of Eternal Lies for Trail of Cthulhu
June Page XX Available — get the latest Pelgrane Press News
Accretion Disk for Ashen Stars
The Justice Trade for Ashen Stars
Some Mysteries You Don’t Want to Solve: Exploring Dead Rock Seven for Ashen Stars
Out of Space for Trail of Cthulhu
Ashen Stars by Robin D. Laws
The Dying Earth Role Playing Game

The Dying Earth RPG is a 192-page hardcover priced at $29.95.  Beyond The Mountains of Magnatz is a 96 page PDF, and sells for $9.95.  Both are available at the Pelgrane Press website.

See all of our recent Games coverage here.

An Interview with Author Bradley Beaulieu

An Interview with Author Bradley Beaulieu

bradleybeaulieuI’m pleased to interview my great friend and writer buddy, Brad Beaulieu. We’ll be discussing his new novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, Book One of The Lays of Anuskaya, which comes out the first of April 2011 from Nightshade Books as a trade paperback and as an eBook. Winds is a sweeping epic fantasy with a Czarist Russian and Persian feel, a unique combination to be sure. I’m so proud of Brad’s accomplishment with the world building and the story. I’ve been involved with this novel for several years now, and have had a part in the revisions, so I’ve seen it go from an awesome book with an amazing concept to a truly exceptional one with a fully fleshed-out world.

Brad has had his short stories published in the most prestigious speculative fiction publications including Realms of Fantasy, The Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future, and several anthologies from DAW Books. He’s also the father of two and the husband to a wonderful woman, Joanne. They live in Wisconsin and besides being an excellent writer, Brad is an amazing cook.

Now on to the interview…

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Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Part Ten – “The Mummy”

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Part Ten – “The Mummy”

mummy1blood-of-fu-manchu-1968-01-g-1“The Mummy” was the tenth and final installment of Sax Rohmer’s Fu-Manchu and Company. The story was first published in Collier’s on December 4, 1915 and was later expanded to comprise Chapters 31-33 of the second Fu-Manchu novel, The Devil Doctor first published in the UK in 1916 by Cassell and in the US by McBride & Nast under the variant title, The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu.

Following on from the unbearably suspenseful sadomasochistic tour de force of “The Six Gates,” this final installment of the second Fu-Manchu serial opens with Petrie sleeping securely for the first time in months aboard a ship’s cabin as he crosses the Mediterranean when his rest is disturbed by an urgent telegraph message that has just been received from an unknown destination. The message reads simply, “Dr. Petrie – my shadow lies upon you all.” It serves as a chilling reminder that, though believed dead after being shot by Karamaneh at the conclusion of the next episode, Dr. Fu-Manchu’s servants may yet take vengeance for her betrayal.

No sooner has this fact occurred to them than all concerned are startled by the sound of Karamaneh screaming. They rush to her cabin along with her brother Aziz and find her hysterical after an attempt on her life by an Egyptian mummy she claims entered her cabin through the porthole and attempted to strangle her in her sleep. Of course there is no sign of an intruder anywhere.

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