Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Mastering the Runes: A World of Warcraft d20 RPG Class Handbook Written in the Wrong Decade for No One

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A wizened old dwarf chisels symbols of power into her ornate hammer. A defiant orc beats his fists together until his body is struck through...
Friday, November 29, 2024

Spirits & Spookiness: BECMI Boxed Sets (1977-1991)

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BECMI (1977-1991) The first of the two parallel branches of 20th century D&D we'll be looking at is Basic D&D and all its rules ...

Spirits & Spookiness Interlude: Basic & Advanced D&D Split (1977)

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Admittedly this post isn't actually going to be about shaman classes, but it is valuable connective tissue in the history of D&D tha...
Saturday, November 9, 2024

Ride Ze Shoopuf? (TROIKA! Background & Creature)

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Shoopuf Driver You are one of the froglike Hypello, clammy and laidback in the extreme. So laidback in fact, that when the river decided to ...
Monday, November 4, 2024

The One Where Furt Reads a Second Dragonlance Novel in as Many Years to Quell the Gnashing Anxiety in the Back of His Head and Then Ends up Summarizing it Again

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Late last year I wrote at length about my experiences trying to read a book for the first time in ages. In typical Furtive fashion I laid b...
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Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Spirits & Spookiness: Etymologies & Definitions of "Shaman"

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The first challenge I experienced in writing this history was defining what I’m actually talking about.  In fantasy, “shaman” is a vague and...

Spirits & Spookiness: OD&D (1974-1977)

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Original Dungeons & Dragons (1974) Cover of the famous White Box reprint. There’s no better place to start off than the Original Dungeon...