Sad news here for any old school SF and fantasy fans: Jack Vance just died.

And now I'm wondering how many people reading this are going, "Who?"

Jack was one of the 'second tier' SF and fantasy authors* from the 40's right down to the 90's. He wrote some utterly magnificent works, with my favorite definitely being his Dying Earth cycle, which ( Read more... )

Something I just found over at Paizo: The Noble Wild, a new RPG sourcebook for playing sentient animal characters in D&D-ish settings. I don't know if they go as far as "anthro critters" or not, but it looks like a good-sized piece of work. Maybe I'll scoop up a copy after AC to see what it's like ( Read more... )

First of all, Dave Arneson (who helped create D&D together with Gary Gygax) has just died. All my prayers and condolences to his family right now. And thank you, Mister Arneson, for all that you gave us. *bows head*

Secondly, I just got this little note from the nice folks at Paizo:

Dear Eric ( Read more... )

Figured this would be of some interest to the folks reading this: a book on how to use werewolves in a 3 or 3.5ed D&D campaign, though it should be useful with the other editions as well.

The Complete Book of Werewolves!

Just have to rant about this -- have recently learned that WOTC, in its less than infinite wisdom, is going to destroy everything that made the Forgotten Realms unique as a setting. basically, killing off most of the deities, getting rid of 'non-standard' races (after using them in the novels for almost a decade! Arrrgh!), killing off most of the ' ( Read more... )

Some more news on the new edition of D&D: It's coming out starting next summer, and among other things, it'll be miniatures-heavy, the old 'Vancian'* magic system will be gone, and if you've ever seen a 3.5 book titled BOOK OF NINE SWORDS**, that'll give you an idea of the intended direction ( Read more... )

WotC is coming out with 4th Ed. Dungeons & Dragons ( Read more... )