What are you reading?

[Melan]

Zweihander Grim & Perilous RPG Core Rulebook.

How is it? I was turned off by the author's relentless spamming and insufferable Internet persona, but might not have given the game a fair shake.

[JCBoney]

Zweihander Grim & Perilous RPG Core Rulebook.

How is it? I was turned off by the author's relentless spamming and insufferable Internet persona, but might not have given the game a fair shake.

It's extremely... interesting. If you've ever played 1E WHFRP back in the day, it's a retroclone of that. I played it once back in the early 90s, so I recognize the mechanics. This ain't D&D, for sure. In fact, it makes Game of Thrones look like that shitty D&D movie from the '90s.

Give me time, and I may post a review here and/or on the RPGSite. The core book is over 600 pages long, the Player's Handbook is over 300 pages long and essentially the player's information all in one spot, and the main supplement, Main Gauche, is also over 300 pages long... all packed with rules and information... so it will take a minute to digest.

ETA: the quality of the books are great. Thick, hardbound, well bound, with a ribbon to mark your place.

[grodog]

For a school reading assignment, Henry has to read a novel in verse, so he's asked permission to read Tolkien's translation of Sir Gawain and The Green Knight

Allan.

[Falconer]

Cool assignment!

Tolkien’s SGGK is going to be a difficult read, though, not gonna lie.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Tolkien for me, as well. I was reading the history of Middle Earth material, before, but took a break from it, but I'm now back into it again. I'm not reading in any particular order, but whatever subject catches my fancy. I have all the books, so I'm free to jump around.

(I just finished re-reading The Silmarillion, again.)

[Melan]

It's extremely... interesting. If you've ever played 1E WHFRP back in the day, it's a retroclone of that. I played it once back in the early 90s, so I recognize the mechanics. This ain't D&D, for sure. In fact, it makes Game of Thrones look like that shitty D&D movie from the '90s.

I'd appreciate a review, or even just a list of impressions. We used to play a lot of WFRP 1e, and it ranks as one of my favourite games (although we haven't actually sat down and played it since the late 1990s outside a one-shot).

[benjoshua]

I read The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and it was an interesting look at early colony life and religion in America. I was amazed how susceptible people were to superstition and witchcraft due primarily to fear. It's hard to believe people actually fell for these fallacies until you look at our own society right now and its current vulnerability to conspiracy theories. I don't think Dungeon Masters take advantage of groupthink or mob mentality among village people often enough to affect and communicate the nature of threats from monsters and evil. An interesting scenario in a village, for example, could be the sudden presence of a lycanthrope(s) and all the villagers rush to the party members grabbing them and screaming for help hindering their movements and ability to cast spells, as a child would grab their parent's leg when afraid.

[JCBoney]

I read The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and it was an interesting look at early colony life and religion in America. I was amazed how susceptible people were to superstition and witchcraft due primarily to fear. It's hard to believe people actually fell for these fallacies until you look at our own society right now and its current vulnerability to conspiracy theories. I don't think Dungeon Masters take advantage of groupthink or mob mentality among village people often enough to affect and communicate the nature of threats from monsters and evil. An interesting scenario in a village, for example, could be the sudden presence of a lycanthrope(s) and all the villagers rush to the party members grabbing them and screaming for help hindering their movements and ability to cast spells, as a child would grab their parent's leg when afraid.

Exactly. Miller wrote that as an analogy to the McCarthy Hearings.

[benjoshua]

Exactly. Miller wrote that as an analogy to the McCarthy Hearings.

Interestingly, there is now research which shows that a type of fungus, ergot, is suspected to have grown on the rye eaten by Salem residents at the time. Ergot is a hallucinogenic, so possibly the accusers, who believed they were being taunted by witches, were actually under the effects of a common grain fungus!

Still, your point is spot on. These kinds of problems pop up frequently in history. Some people are gullible, pious, and/or hysterical, while others would rather die than provide a false confession and go along with the crowd.

[benjoshua]

I read the book The House of The Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was surprised that it had a haunted house element to it. I read it because it's considered a classic, and I was disappointed with it overall. The story has so many prepositional phrases, asides, clauses, etc... it was a chore to understand. The plot develops slowly with all the descriptions, but I did gain insights about early village life in America applicable to village life in many D&D campaigns. Many people used their homes as places of business. Attire communicated status. Superstition had widespread credence. Still, I won't be reading anything else by this author.

[Philotomy Jurament]

Still reading Tolkien stuff. I'm reading The Silmarillion again (even though I recently re-read it), but this time as I go through it I'm supplementing it with the relevant History of Middle Earth material, as well as Unfinished Tales, and frequent map references. Dug out my Robert Foster guide to Middle Earth, as well.

(Mostly this was brought on by talking with my eldest nephew, who is super big into Tolkien and didn't realize how much Tolkien material I have, etc.)

Also just re-read The Hobbit, again, which was very enjoyable. I'm thinking about doing my own arrangement of the dwarves' "Misty Mountains Cold" song.

[grodog]

I read the book The House of The Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was surprised that it had a haunted house element to it. I read it because it's considered a classic, and I was disappointed with it overall. [snip] Still, I won't be reading anything else by this author.

Hawthore’s real strength, in my mind, was in his short stories. His novels are decent, but ploddingly paced—as was the case with many 19th century American/British writers.

Allan.

[grodog]

Also just re-read The Hobbit, again, which was very enjoyable. I'm thinking about doing my own arrangement of the dwarves' "Misty Mountains Cold" song.

That would be cool to hear!

Allan.

[Welleran]

I read the book The House of The Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne and was surprised that it had a haunted house element to it. I read it because it's considered a classic, and I was disappointed with it overall. The story has so many prepositional phrases, asides, clauses, etc... it was a chore to understand. The plot develops slowly with all the descriptions, but I did gain insights about early village life in America applicable to village life in many D&D campaigns. Many people used their homes as places of business. Attire communicated status. Superstition had widespread credence. Still, I won't be reading anything else by this author.

I rather like Hawthorne but to each their own. That said, I took a candlelit tour of the House of the Seven Gables in Salem Mass on Halloween night 1992 (the 300th anniversary year of the witch trials). They had a mix of actors portraying characters from the novel and some of the people that actually lived there. So very cool!

[Falconer]

The Past Through Tomorrow by Heinlein.