Modular: Star Trek Adventures is Versed in Multiple Techniques

Modular: Star Trek Adventures is Versed in Multiple Techniques

startrekadventuresThis week marked the -46th anniversary of First Contact Day, the date in 2063 when Zefram Cochrane was the first human to create and engage a warp drive (time travel situations excluded), as depicted in the film Star Trek: First Contact. As such, it seems appropriate to look at the state of affairs with the upcoming Star Trek Adventures roleplaying game, slated for a 2017 release from Modiphius Entertainment.

Modiphius has been playtesting the game since late last year as an open live playtest, using gamers from across the world as guinea pigs to find bugs in their design and crowdsourcing improvement suggestions. In addition to the Alpha set of rules for playtest, the Round 1 included a generic “starter” adventure that all of the playtesters could run through. I discussed my thoughts on this shortly after I playtested it, back in December, playing the group with a mix of Star Trek enthusiasts and their less-enthusiastic spouses, all of whom are relative novices at roleplaying games.

Earlier this year, based on feedback from the first round, Modiphius released a second round of playtest, as well as new adventures focused on the specific ship that you signed up to test for, allowing them to test science/exploration missions vs. combat-oriented missions vs. diplomacy missions, and so on. The new set of rules contained updates to earlier rules, but also a key new gaming system: starships. Once we provided feedback on the Round 2 playtest, playtesters were given access to the character creation system.

So let’s take a moment to dive into Star Trek Adventures …

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Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven edited by Jonathan Strahan

Future Treasures: The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Eleven edited by Jonathan Strahan

The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume Eleven Strahan-smallHoly cats, have we started the Best of the Year season already? How did that sneak up on me?

However it happened, I take great pleasure in cataloging the new additions to some of my favorite anthologies every year. Jonathan Strahan is one of the top editors in the field, and his ongoing Infinity anthology series (Meeting Infinity, Bridging Infinity, etc.) has produced some of the most acclaimed short SF of the past decade. Strahan has been editing The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year for eleven straight years, the first seven with Night Shade, and the last three with Solaris, and he shows no sign of stopping. It’s a book I cherish every year, and Volume 11 — with fiction by Amal El-Mohtar, Paolo Bacigalupi, Aliette de Bodard, N.K. Jemisin, Rich Larson, Yoon Ha Lee, Ken Liu, Ian R. MacLeod, Paul McAuley, Geoff Ryman, Delia Sherman, Lavie Tidhar, Catherynne M Valente, Genevieve Valentine, and many others — is no exception.

It arrives in trade paperback in two weeks. Here’s the Table of Contents.

“Two’s Company,” Joe Abercrombie (Tor.com, Jan 16, 2016)
“The Art of Space Travel,” Nina Allan (Tor.com)
“Seasons of Glass and Iron,” Amal El-Mohtar (The Starlit Wood)
“Mika Model,” Paolo Bacigalupi (Slate)
“A Salvaging of Ghosts,” Aliette de Bodard (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 01/03/16)
“Laws of Night and Silk,” Seth Dickinson (Beneath Ceaseless Skies, 26 May 2016)
“Touring with the Alien,” Carolyn Ives Gilman (Clarkesworld 115, 4/16)
“Red as Blood and White as Bone,” Theodora Goss (Tor.com)

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Wordsmiths: An Interview with Aurora Award-winner Ryan McFadden

Wordsmiths: An Interview with Aurora Award-winner Ryan McFadden

oie_5231921a2ylux5TFor my fourth installment in the Wordsmiths interview series, I had the pleasure of talking shop with Ryan T. McFadden, three-time winner of the Aurora Award and author most recently of the fantasy novel Cursed: Black Swan, from Dragon Moon Press. I’ve known Ryan for a few years now, since my first-ever panel at Can*Con in Ottawa — he’s not only a fabulous writer, he’s also good people, so I’m thrilled to be able to cast a spotlight on him this week. Read on below for my discussion with Ryan on the pressures of being a writer, influences on what we write, and past exploits. Enjoy!

Ryan’s bio (possibly pilfered from his website): Ryan T. McFadden is a writer of fantasy and horror, with short stories and novellas published through Dragon Moon Press, Edge SF & F, and Absolute X-Press. In 2014, his novella “Ghost in the Machine” won the Aurora Award (Canada’s most prestigious award for SF&F) for Short Fiction. His motley past involved such dangerous work as database administration, ice cream flavoring (seriously, that’s a thing), hockey league administration, screen printing, web design, furniture building, and home renovations. He lives in London, Ontario, with his two beautiful, but sometimes diabolical daughters, who he is sure are plotting to one day overthrow him. Check out Ryan on Twitter: @RyanTMcFadden.

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Goth Chick News: IT Floats Into the Record Books (Even Before Its Release)

Goth Chick News: IT Floats Into the Record Books (Even Before Its Release)

Black Gate IT

Clowns are creepy.

You know it. I know it. And Stephen King really knows it because he’s about to make bank on it… again.

After months of anticipation, the first trailer for director Andy Muschetti’s upcoming theatrical re-adaptation of King’s classic novel IT hit the net last week; and to say the response was positive would be a serious understatement. In fact, even though I’ve now watched it about a dozen times, I must say I was freaked out all over again when I attached it to this article.

In case you haven’t had the pleasure yet, check it out below…

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Modular: The New Mongoose Traveller #1 — First Impressions

Modular: The New Mongoose Traveller #1 — First Impressions

(Read First Article)
(Read First Article)

Traveller is 40 years old and there’s a new edition!

Jake squeezes between some crates.

Silence.

He exhales. It seems he’s evaded the Imperial black ops team. Now if he could just find his mates in the darkened warehouse. He pushes a little further between the crates. There in the space between the aisles is the alien weapon that started this whole mess.

Jake looks left and right then ghosts into the open. Breathing hard now, he reaches out and picks up the alien artefact. Despite its bulk, it’s surprisingly light and he hefts it higher than he intended.

Lights flash along its stock. It emits a, “Whirrrrrrrrr PING!

Shadowy figures pop up around the dimly-lit warehouse. The air fills with bullets.

One slams into Jake, punches through his chest armour. Almost spent, it still smashes his rib cage.

Everything goes dark…

Yes, this is the new Mongoose Traveller, the latest incarnation of a roleplaying game so influential that the book and TV inspirations listed in its introduction all arguably owe something to early versions of the game.

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March/April 2017 Analog Now on Sale

March/April 2017 Analog Now on Sale

Analog Science Fiction and Fact March April 2017-smallI’m getting used to Analog and Asimov’s new bimonthly publication schedule. For one thing, the magazines have added an additional 16 pages, which is a substantial bonus.

Here’s Analog editor Trevor Qachari on the impact of the change, and what we can look forward to in the March/April issue.

Effective immediately, with the very magazine you hold in your hands, Analog will be publishing only double issues — six of them per year. Right off the bat, you’ll see more novellas, longer book review columns, and more variety in the themes that thread through the stories. (For example, our next issue will have both the usual lighter April fare as well as a selection of time-travel pieces.)

The main advantage is that this format allows us to hold current subscription prices a bit longer. (You may have already noticed that this issue is 208 pages instead of our customary 192 for double issues; we worked hard to make sure that there wouldn’t be any loss of content.)

So, what kinds of things can you expect in this brave new world? Well, we have two novellas: “Nexus” by Michael F. Flynn, and John Alfred Taylor’s “Plaisir d’Amour”; “Sustainability Lab 101,” our fact article from Stanley Schmidt; and a trio of novelettes — “Europa’s Survivors” by Marianne J. Dyson; “Host” by Eneaz Brodski; and “The Human Way” by Tony Ballantyne — as well as almost a full “single” issue’s worth of short stories, some light-hearted, like “Ecuador vs. the Bug-Eyed Monsters” by Jay Werkheiser, and “Concerning the Devastation Wrought by the Nefarious Gray Comma and Its Ilk,” by Tim McDaniel; and some that involve a relative rarity in these pages: time travel. “Eli’s Coming,” by Catherine Wells; “Grandmaster” by Jay O’Connell; “Alexander’s Theory of Special Relativity” by Shane Halbach; “Time Heals” by James C. Glass; and “The Snatchers” by Edward P. McDermott — all struck a chord with me (for different reasons), and I bet at least some of them will for you, too.

The cover art this issue is by Tomislav Tikulin. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.

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Vintage Treasures: Zimiamvia: A Trilogy by E.R. Eddison

Vintage Treasures: Zimiamvia: A Trilogy by E.R. Eddison

Zimiamvia a Trilogy E R Eddison-small Zimiamvia a Trilogy E R Eddison-back-small

There’s an awful lot of bestselling fantasy on the market these days, and sometimes it seems it’ll be around forever. But I know from hard experience that the vast majority of it will be gone in five years. It’s the rare fantasy indeed that remains in print for a decade — much less 20, 30, or 50 years.

E.R. Eddison’s Zimiamvia trilogy has been in print, off and on, for an astonishing eight decades, since the first volume appeared in 1935. J.R.R. Tolkien called Eddison “The greatest and most convincing writer of invented worlds that I have read,” and in the decades that followed his reputation has only grown among serious students of fantasy. The three volume in the trilogy are:

Mistress of Mistresses (1935)
A Fish Dinner in Memison (1941)
The Mezentian Gate (1958)

Eddison was also the author of the fantasy classic The Worm Ouroboros, to which the Zimiamvia trilogy is a loose sequel.

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Black Gate on the List for the 2017 REH Foundation Awards

Black Gate on the List for the 2017 REH Foundation Awards

Howard_FoundationPlaqueWell, the Preliminary List. There may well not be a more respected organization in Robert E. Howard circles than that of the REH Foundation. Black Gate and a few of its bloggers were on the final 2016 Awards ballot. Last week, the Foundation released the preliminary list for the 2017 Awards. It will be winnowed down to a final ballot soon.

Typing ‘Robert E. Howard’ or ‘Conan’ in the BG search engine (or just clicking on the Conan Category at left) will definitely establish that we love Howard and his works here at Black Gate. And several Black Gaters, including the site itself, are in the running for the 2017 final ballot. I’ll also point out that many of the nominees contributed to our ‘Discovering Robert E. Howard’ series: some of the best Howard scholars came to Black Gate to share their thoughts. The Black Gate contingent:

The Cimmerian—Outstanding Achievement, Essay (Online)

(Essays must have made their first public published appearance in the previous calendar year and be substantive scholarly essays on the life and/or work of REH. Short blog posts, speeches, reviews, trip reports, and other minor works do not count.)

ADAMS, FRED – “Esau Cairn – A Man Outside His Epoch”Black Gate
BYRNE, BOB – “Steve Harrison: REH’s Private Detective”REH: Two Gun Raconteur Blog
JONES, HOWARD ANDREW – “The Ne’re-do-well Hero of “Gates of Empire”REH: Two Gun Raconteur Blog
MAYNARD, WILLIAM PATRICK – “Steve Harrison Reconsidered”REH: Two Gun Raconteur Blog

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Announcing the 2017 Hugo Award Nominees

Announcing the 2017 Hugo Award Nominees

too-like-the-lightning-small Ninefox-Gambit-smaller the-obelisk-gate-small

Worldcon 75, the 75th World Science Fiction Convention, has announced the finalists for the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and we’re delighted to share them with you here. May we have the envelope please!

Best Novel

  • All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (Tor)
  • A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers (Harper Voyager)
  • The Obelisk Gate, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
  • Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris)
  • Death’s End, Cixin Liu (Tor)
  • Too Like the Lightning, Ada Palmer (Tor)

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Evil Specters, Ghost Clans, and a Zombie in the Basement: The Haunted Mystery Novels by Chris Grabenstein

Evil Specters, Ghost Clans, and a Zombie in the Basement: The Haunted Mystery Novels by Chris Grabenstein

The Crossroads-small The Hanging Hill-small The Smoky Corridor-small The Black Heart Crypt-small

The books that pretty much introduced me to reading — and to creepy tales of Screaming Clocks, Whispering Mummies, Haunted Mirrors, and all the delicious trappings of horror — were the Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators novels by Robert Arthur. Man, they were great. Three resourceful teens with a chauffeur who drove them around, and a secret hideout in an old junkyard… who could resist? I was sold after my very first one, The Mystery of the Green Ghost.

I’ve had a spot spot for middle grade horror-thrillers ever since. So I was very pleased to stumble upon bestselling author Chis Grabenstein’s Haunted Mystery series showcasing the intrepid Zack, a sixth grader with the uncanny ability to talk to ghosts, and his stepmother Judy, who writes children’s books. The series features a malevolent spirit inhabiting a tree, a horde of evil specters, a ruthless hit man hunting lost treasure, a voodoo savvy ghost seeking a new body, a soul-sucking zombie in the basement, and a ghost clan out to ruin Halloween. I wish these had been around when I was in the sixth grade…. but I’m still happy to have them now.

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