At Nerdarchy.com: Dungeon Crate

Are you familiar with those subscription box services? For a price a box full of goodies is mailed to you each month. There are tons of these services for just about everything, from chocolate to beer to toys, etc. In some circles they are still called gift-of-the-month clubs. Well, finally there is one for tabletop role players, called Dungeon Crate, and I write a little about it over at this week's Nerdarchy article.

At Nerdarchy.com: I skip D&D editions

Even though I've played D&D for at least 35 years now (wow, that sounds like a long time), I've not played every single edition, or at least I've not played very much of some editions. Why? Find out more at my weekly Nerdarchy.com article.

Books read in 2016: No. 1 -- Twilight

by Stephenie Meyer

Started: Jan. 1
Finished: Jan. 11

Notes: Evidence I'll read just about anything? Stop your laughing. My late wife left this one behind, and she didn't have good things to say about it though she did like the movie. A lot of people have not had good things to say about this one, but I prefer to judge it myself. With all its sales and popularity, this book and series must have done something right, even if it might be something in which I myself am not interested. Either way, if I do have bad things to say, at least they will be based upon experience and not just because others have said so.

Mini review: Honestly, I'm a bit embarrassed to say this, but I found this a delightful read. No, it's not Faulkner or Hemingway or even King, not by a long shot, but it kept my attention more than a lot of modern novels I've read. And it was funny, making me chuckle more than once at some of the vampire humor. Nowhere near as pretentious or moody as the movie, though there's a touch of that here and there. Yes, it's somewhat juvenile, even immature in parts, but it's a first-person tale told by a 17-year-old girl who is experiencing her very first crush, though that crush happens to be a vampire, and I wouldn't expect it not to be juvenile and immature at times. I also feel the Bella character has gotten a bad rap (probably more because of the movie than this novel) because she actually shows a fair amount of bravery here, though by no means is she an action-driven character. Some of the things from the movie which did not make sense to me were better explained here, especially concerning the character motivations of the vampires. And then there's the sparkling. I freely admit the notion of sparkling vampires is downright silly, but it's actually a very small portion of this book, maybe three pages, so I can overlook that to some extent. Will I read on to other books in this series? Hmm, probably not, or at least I won't go out of my way to do so, for this really isn't my kind of thing, but if somehow I ended up with free copies, yeah, I might give them a go. Okay, you can start laughing again.

At Nerdarchy.com: English not your first tongue?

This week my Nerdarchy article offers some suggestions for tabletop role players who do not have English as a first language. The gist is that they should view it as a strength, not a weakness.

Books read in 2015: No. 44 -- Legends of the Dark Knight, #1

written by Dennis O'Neil

Started: Dec. 31
Finished: Dec. 31

Notes: As it's the last day of the year, I don't want to jump into a longer work just yet, so today I thought my reading material would be this comic book, originally published in 1989. I read it back then, and continued with the title for about 50 issues or so before I thought it lost it's original vision. At the time this comic was quite unique, taking a rather adult look at Batman, though that's old hat nowadays. Also, this particular issue was interesting in that it took a different approach to the events which gave birth to the Batman figure, offering something of a Native American myth and viewpoint.

Mini review: The story and art remain strong while Bruce Wayne is out in the hinterlands of northern Alaska, but once it journeyed to Gotham and he became Batman, it all felt a little silly and contrived. Maybe I'm just getting too old for Batman. Gosh, I hope not.

At Nerdarchy.com: My gaming resolutions for 2016

My weekly article at Nerdarchy.com lists my 2016 resolutions as related to tabletop role playing games. The big gist is that I'll be looking to expanding my horizons by playing new games, unfamiliar roles, and with new players.

Books read in 2015: No. 43 -- The Night of the Long Knives

by Fritz Leiber

Started: Dec. 27
Finished: Dec. 30

Notes: I'd never heard of this novel from this famous sci-fi/fantasy author, so I grabbed it for free at Amazon when I discovered it. Apparently it is a post-apocalyptic novel and has nothing to do with the infamous events in German history that bear the same name as the title.

Mini review: Holy shit, that was a good book, the best I've read in a long while. And the weird thing is, when I stop and think about the story, none of it should work, but it does. It's kind of a Mad Max meets 1950s science fiction tale, but honestly, there's not that much action. There is a little action, but most of it is the main character's viewpoint thoughts or his talking with others. I realize that doesn't sound all that exciting, but I promise, here it works. And deep down, or maybe not so deep, this is a philosophical book with a moral, talking about murder and war and violence. I'm sorry I hadn't read this one years earlier. This might now be my all-time favorite work from Leiber.