by Aggro Me on August 5, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
My first post in the salute to Gary Gygax was a discussion of his novel, The Anubis Murders. So I thought it fitting to end our ten days of Gary Gygax and D&D posts with a mention of what appears to be his final novel.
I saw a news story on SFGate that Paizo’s Planet Stories is publishing a “lost” Gygax novel. The novel, named The Infernal Sorceress, features new characters (”the handsome swordsman Raker and his cunning daggerman Ferret”) but is set in the Aerth world of previous Gygax novels.
When he responded that he had an entire novel ready to go, I almost fell out of my chair. Infernal Sorceress is Gary’s eleventh and final novel, produced when he was at the top of his game as a novelist.
Hopefully the “lost novel” angle will lend some cachet to the book. You can check out the cover art and read a description of the novel; it looks like it will be available in August.
I’ve read a couple of other fantasy novels since I read Anubis Murders and it’s “held up” remarkably well in my mind. So, I’m happy that I have ten more Gygax novels out there to read instead of nine.
Well, we hope you enjoyed some of the posts we did in honor of Gary Gygax and D&D. We actually thought of many more topics for this salute than we had time to write. But, of course, just because this little salute is over doesn’t mean we won’t be discussing D&D from time to time and covering other topics that can be traced directly to Gygax and D&D. The amazing thing about Gary Gygax and the game he co-created is that, as we continue to post on any geeky topic, we’ll often still be saluting him in one way or another.
by Aggro Me on August 4, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
Ah, Gleemax, I hardly knew you. Hey, I know I made fun of your name in this blog post on MMO influences on Fourth Edition D&D. But I didn’t think you would vanish so quickly into the internet graveyard.
Gleemax was (or is, since it’s still up) a social network for gamers run by Wizards of the Coast. Wizards announced on July 28 that Gleemax was going goodbye. Since it was started on October 10, 2007 (according to Wikipedia) that means it lasted less than a year.
However, Wizards is not abandoning it’s entire internet initiative for D&D. The farewell post states that, by taking Gleemax out back behind the woodshed, Wizards can allocate more resources to getting D&D Insider up and running. D&D Insider is an online, subscription based service meant to complement Dungeons & Dragons.
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by Aggro Me on August 3, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
Most of us would love to be featured in a great cartoon like Futurama, and, as I discussed, Gary Gygax did just that. But that’s not the only awesome animated series that Gary Gygax has appeared on. No, he also had a wonderful guest star spot on my favorite 8-bit style animated series about crazy game designers in the 80’s. I’m speaking, of course, about Code Monkeys on G4TV.
If you haven’t seen Code Monkeys, it’s a hilarious series with a ton of geeky in-jokes centered around the employees of GameaVision, a wacky video game company. I always have a great time watching it when I catch it on, but it doesn’t rise to the level of Futurama for me. I just don’t seem to care about the characters as much as I should. And sometimes it seems to be more a collection of hilarious skits than a story. But I still definitely recommend giving it a try.
Gygax appeared in one of my favorite episodes, “Todd Loses His Mind,” which is Episode 9 of the first season. In it, Todd, the nerdiest of the programmers, goes upon a quest (as his alter-ego Pardue) to kidnap Molly Ringwald (”the red-headed sorceress”) as an offering for his ”great master” Gary Gygax. Will Gygax (who apparently lives in a giant 20-sided die) agree to raise Todd’s stats in sexual stamina?
The only place I could find the episode online is at Veoh. It looks like the Season 1 DVD is being released on August 5th.
Oh, and a little trivia for ya: Do you know who sings the great Code Monkeys theme song? That’s right - Jonathan Coulton, famed for the amazing “Still Alive” from Portal.
by Aggro Me on August 2, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
I know the whole concept of “Saturday Morning Cartoons” does not hold the same weight for kids today. But let me tell you, it was a big deal when I was growing up. There were plenty of corny contenders filling up the cartoon airwaves, but once in a while something really special came along. The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon was definitely one of the special ones.
I felt like finally, amidst the dogs solving mysteries, the bizarre little blue creatures and the wacky hijinks of talking animals, someone actually figured out the kind of adventures I craved. The show featured a group of kids who take a ride at an amusement park and end up in the swords and sorcery realm of D&D. Let me tell you, I took plenty of amusement park rides with the hope of this happening but it hasn’t worked. Yet.
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by Aggro Me on August 1, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
I‘ve played plenty of board games that owe a lot to D&D (Dark Tower, Descent and BattleLore amongst others) and I’ll likely discuss those in detail at some point. But for the purposes of our little D&D celebration here, I was trying to remember if I ever played any official D&D branded board games (not counting roleplaying or miniatures games).
I did some searching around on one of my favorite websites, BoardGameGeek, to try to jog my memory. Well, I didn’t find any official games I’ve played but I did discover a couple of ”interesting” D&D branded games.
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by Aggro Me on August 1, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
It’s almost impossible for me to think about D&D any more without picturing scenes from the unintentionally hilarious Jack Chick tract “Dark Dungeons.” If you haven’t seen it yet, take a gander.
I never get tired of this thing. Sometimes I think Jack Chick is playing us all and is truly the greatest troll in internet history. The number of people who have read and parodied this thing is just astronomical.
Here is a discussion of the tract with links to plenty of parodies.
May Black Leaf live in all of our hearts forever!
by Aggro Me on July 31, 2008
Part of our salute to Gary Gygax:
In thinking back on D&D this week, I’ve realized that I was hooked by the concept even before I was old enough to really play the actual game.
One example of this was my collection of AD&D action figures. I remember these being well made and a ton of fun. I found a short article on the toy line and a listing with pictures. Seeing those images brought the memories flooding back as clear as day. I know I spent hours recreating epic adventures on my bedroom floor. I even recall that my one issue with the entire line was finding a suitably heroic “good guy” warrior to be the main hero in the stories I created.
Now, Warduke was certainly a wonderful villain. But when it came to the forces of good, well, there was no perfect fit. Northlord looked too much like He-Man and I felt that a sword was the most heroic weapon, not an axe. Now, the Young Titan was pretty cool but way too Roman in style to really fit into the more medieval adventures I was creating. Strongheart would seem like the perfect fit for my main hero and I did have this character. But even as a kid, something about that 70’s style mustache prevented me from really identifying with the brave paladin. [click to continue…]
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