I was thinking the other day about D & D. It has been about 27 years since the first time I played, and probably over 20 since I was in a serious game. I posted a note by the elevators of Twin Towers, the dorm where I lived at ASU in Jonesboro, Arkansas, asking if anybody in the building was willing to teach me how to play; I had read about it somewhere but didn't know what it entailed.
Within the hour, two jocular fellows, one tall and skinny and black-headed, the other short and stocky and with a blonde Prince Valiant haircut, had shown up at my door to take me under their collective wings.
We all three flunked out, although not because of D & D specifically. When I saw the lads on campus are about to play their first game this Friday night, I RSVP'd I'd attend. I've never DM'd, but as for playing, it's like riding a bike. All you need is a two-liter of Mtn. Dew and a big bag of cheetos.
I've been reading some of the RPG-based novel omnibuses (omnibii?) put out by the Black Library, based on the fantasy side of Warhammer. I have on hand, in a big stack, the following:
MATHIAS THULMANN: WITCH HUNTER
BLACKHEARTS: THE OMNIBUS
GOTREK & FELIX V. 1
MALUS DARKBLADE V. 1
&
FLORIN & LORENZO
So far so good. So far there haven't been any Fritz Leibers or Robert E. Howards in the stack, but I have a feeling that books like those published from the Black Library are and will be the closest thing on a mass market scale we see to the kind of popularity the pulps had back in their heyday.
That isn't a bad thing. People remember the stars of the field and forget the other 90% of what appeared in those pages, the stories that were a good read but that didn't immortalize their author. There was only one Robert E. Howard, after all.
And Gotrek & Felix aren't bad at all, actually.
About Me
- Don
- I teach English at a great state university in Arkansas: formerly a newspaperman, cab driver, cook, teacher, single father of one remarkable son, und so weiter. Writing a space opera at the moment.
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4 comments:
I love the Thulmann stories - they are like watching a Hammer horror movie in the Warhammer world (and, C. L. Werner makes no apologies for it.)
I just watched 'Witchfinder General' this weekend, which is a direct influence, particularly the henchman, Streng (in the movie, his name is Stern.)
I also thought the first Florin & Lorezno novel, The Burning Shore, was one of my best Warhammer reads so far.
Thanks for the feedback! I just got the FLORIN & LORENZO and can't wait to start it. And the Thulmann is my favorite so far of all the Warhammer. I watched "Witchfinder General" a few weeks ago myself!
That's a lot of good stuff in a small post. It's very true to the gamer experience. I think this line sums up a lot:
"I've never DM'd, but as for playing, it's like riding a bike. All you need is a two-liter of Mtn. Dew and a big bag of cheetos."
I love it. And man I totally agree with what you're saying about the pulps. And the Black Library books, more than any other line, seem to me to be Howard's successors as far as the gritty, dark element of pulp fantasy goes.
I've loved a lot of the ficiton put out by TSR/Wizards of the coast, and to be honest it has often kept me reading longer than a lot of the Black Library stuff I've read.
But there is more blood, grit, and gore--more muscle and bawls--in the Black Library stuff.
/rant
Also, half-elves have always been my favorites. My first was a chaotic good half-elf fighter/thief.