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I find that every character should have some religion to help fill them out a bit. If not religion, then at least some strong beliefs or worldviews. For NPC's this might help you come up with some...

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We take a brief tour through the development of the game—from OD&D to AD&D's core rulebooks.

"St. Cuthbert’s D&D Encounters for Troubled Youth" youth group has returned, now to try their hand at D&D Lair Assault. In this series, we check on their first experiences with Attack of the Tyrantclaw.

One compelling aspect of the Dark Sun setting is its diverse landscape. The environment and ecology of Athas have been worn and transformed by the ravages of war, defiling magic, and relentless exposure to the crimson sun. This article provides ideas for bringing to life seven common Athasian terrain types.

Editors Dean and Nikki Alfar invite you to submit short fiction for consideration for Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 8.

Philippine Speculative Fiction is a yearly anthology series, which collects a wide range of stories that define, explore, and sometimes blur the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and all things in between. The anthology has been shortlisted for the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award, and multiple stories from each volume have been cited in roundups of the year’s best speculative fiction across the globe.

First-time authors are more than welcome to submit; good stories trump literary credentials any time.

Submissions must be:
1. speculative fiction—i.e., they must contain strong elements and/or sensibilities of science fiction, fantasy, horror, magic realism, alternate history, folklore, superheroes, and/or related ‘nonrealist’ genres and subgenres
2. written in English
3. authored by persons of Philippine ethnicity and/or nationality

Submissions are preferred to be:
1. original and unpublished
2. no shorter than 1,000 words and no longer than 7,500
3. written for an adult audience
In all cases, these preferences can be easily overturned by exceptionally well-written pieces. In the case of previously-published work—if accepted, the author will be expected to secure permission to reprint, if necessary, from the original publishing entity, and to provide relevant publication information.

Submission details:
1. No multiple or simultaneous submissions—i.e., submit only one story, and do not submit that story to any other publishing market until you have received a letter of regret from us. We don’t mind if you submit to contests.
2. All submissions should be in Rich Text Format (saved under the file extension ‘.rtf’), and emailed to nikkialfar@gmail.com, with the subject line ‘PSF8 submission’.
3. The deadline for submissions is 11 p.m., Manila time, September 15, 2012. Letters of acceptance or regret will be sent out no later than one month after the deadline.

Editors’ notes:
1. Please don’t forget to indicate your real name in the submission email! If you want to write under a pseudonym, that’s fine, but this can be discussed upon story acceptance. Initially, we just need to know who we’re talking to.
2. If you’d like to write a cover letter with your brief bio and publishing history (if applicable), do feel free to introduce yourself—but not your story, please. If it needs to be explained, it’s probably not ready to be published.
3. We advise authors to avoid fancy formatting—this will just be a waste of your time and ours, since we will, eventually, standardize fonts and everything else to fit our established house style.

Authors of selected stories will receive Php500 pesos in compensation, as well as digital copies of the book.

Please help spread the word! Feel free to copy this and paste it anywhere you see fit that happens to be legal. :)

Thanks,
Dean and Nikki Alfar, co-editors

Interviews and Profiles

• Reddit interviews Helen Lowe.
• Gollancz interviews AJ Dalton.
• Ty Johnston interviews Cora Buhlert.
• Prime Books (Molly Tanzer) interviews Lavie Tidhar.
• The Qwillery interviews Trent Jamieson.
• [SFFWRTCHT] A Chat With Author/Editor Robin Wayne Bailey.
• AMC Blog interviews John Scalzi.
• Locus interviews Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant.
• Stina Leicht interviews Mur Lafferty.

Advice/Articles

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: The “Brutal” 2000-Word Day.
• Flavorwire (Emily Temple) on 10 YA Books That Scarred Us For Life.
• Trish Sullivan on Some thoughts on SFF and reality checks.
• Small Beer Press on Translation Games.
• Book Life Now (Cassie Alexander) on Shutting Down, In a Good Way.
• Locus (Gemma Files) on 623 Words About Speculative Poetry.

News

• Jack O'Connell & E.C. Myers read at KGB June 20.
• Angry Robot Announces a New Two-Book Deal for Chuck Wendig.
• Iain Banks and Kim Stanley Robinson in Conversation.
• Prime Books Acquisition.
• The Forum will feature Elizabeth Moon, David Rodin and Elizabeth Quintana.
• Tanya Huff eBooks.

The Croning by Laird Barron

The huge recent success of steampunk has done a lot to show that fantasy fiction, even the most traditional and epic version of the genre, doesn’t have to draw purely from medieval European history, its social structures and its cultural detail.  It’s been great fun to watch the New Victoriana taking over fantasy as a genre, replacing tunics with bustles, and dragons with airships.

Though of course, we can always have dragons AND airships, which is even more fun.  We’re also getting our fair share of magical Regency, with empire-line gowns, the marriage market and Napoleonic dragons.

Using the first half of the 20th century as your historical touchstone has its difficulties.  I didn’t realise how difficult it was, of course, until I was in the middle of trying to do it.

One of those finicky world building details most likely to drive authors completely up the wall is whether we use conventional Earthly names for objects or creatures in fantasy worlds, or new words.  Of course, pretty much all the words we use have Earth derivations, and some readers (and authors) are more picky about them than others.  This is where medieval vocabulary often gets a pass, because there’s something more familiar about chatelaines and knights, paladins and princesses.

But what about the word Flapper?  One of my beta-readers protested at me using that particular word in my manuscript, because it felt like such an Earth-based term to her.  But I stuck to my guns largely because there were so few places in the book where I could drop in elements to evoke the 1920’s rather than pre-industrial historical snippets.

The Creature Court trilogy is a mash up of historical influences from various eras, but I was very firm on wanting to give it that early 20th century flavour.  But it was only very late in the writing process that I let myself include aspects of industry - Victorian style sewing machines, for instance, and trains.  So the best way to convey the 1920’s influences were through fashion, music and other cultural details, and the vocabulary of my characters.

Music was the hardest, of course.  Ever tried describing jazz in words without using the word jazz?  I tried, though I think I ended up just using the words from our world because, you know.  We have words for a reason, and sometimes the only way to access the connotations you need are by using the most obvious word.

Costume was easier for two reasons: my protagonist was a dressmaker, and saw the world through clothes; but also the magical underworld of the Creature Court was heavily reliant on appearances and theatrical presentation to augment status, which meant that I was totally justified in describing every single outfit. I talk more about my approach to the costuming side of the Creature Court over here.

I know that many people have come out of the Creature Court books having not particularly noticed the 1920’s aspects of the world building, and it works fine without being aware of that.  But if you read the books and don’t come away at least with a visual image of Livilla looking like the quintessential 1920’s vamp flapper in the red dress with sharp black bobbed hair, I’m not doing my job right!

For tone and voice, I fell back on an old writing trick that has proved greatly reliable in the past: I read fiction from the era I wanted to evoke.  You can only learn so much from factual books, but fiction is brilliant for the details they take for granted, and the casual vocabulary that their characters drop on the page.  It can influence the author almost on a subconscious level, and while I never applied the same rigour to my research as Mary Robinette Kowal (who only uses words in her Regency magic series that she is certain existed in Jane Austen’s lifetime) it can have a most pleasing influence.

I developed this particular technique quite by accident - I re-read Pride and Prejudice while writing my first novel, and there’s one scene that never quite recovered from all the unexpected formal diction and curtseying that suddenly arrived in my prose.  Later I thought, aha!  I can use that power for good, not evil.  It doesn’t work, of course, for historical eras where there are no extant novels.  But you can't have everything. 

There are many tiny world building details and dialogue tics in the Creature Court that came about because I was reading Evelyn Waugh and Nancy Mitford novels, and even if that wasn’t the case, it’s not like time reading those authors would ever count as wasted!

I have nothing against the medievalist tradition in fantasy fiction (though I do rail rather against the faux-medievalist tradition and the overwhelming use of the less interesting aspects of medieval history in some fantasy fiction) but I am flying the flag for other historical periods to become just as powerful and influential.  We’ve made a good start with the Regency and Victoriana, but what about the neglected history periods of the world?  Where is our Egyptian steampunk, our Sumerian YA, and our 1950’s urban fantasy?

History is fun, but it’s more fun once you start adding werewolves to it.

Seriously.  Try it for yourself.

Some of my favourite recent historical mash up fantasies:

Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis - middle grade regency romp with magic
Soulless (and sequels) by Gail Carriger - Victoriana comic urban fantasy
Temeraire (and sequels) by Naomi Novik - Napoleonic dragons
Shades of Milk and Honey (and sequel) by Mary Robinette Kowal - Regency romance with magic
Cold Magic (and sequels) by Kate Elliott - epic Afro-Celtic post-Roman fantasy with Regency icepunk, Phoenician spies and trolls I AM JUST REPORTING THE FACTS HERE.

But I'm sure many of you can make your own recommendations...

This post was written by Tansy Rayner Roberts for her Flappers with Swords Blog Tour.

Tansy’s award-winning Creature Court trilogy: Power and Majesty, The Shattered City and Reign of Beasts, featuring flappers with swords, shape changers, half-naked men and bloodthirsty court politics, have been released worldwide on the Kindle, and should be available soon across other e-book platforms. If you prefer your books solid and papery, they can also be found in all good Australian and New Zealand bookshops.

You can also check out Tansy’s work through the Hugo-nominated crunchy feminist science fiction podcast Galactic Suburbia, Tansy's short story collection Love and Romanpunk (Twelfth Planet Press). You can find her on the internet at her blog, or on Twitter as @tansyrr.

Our hearty band has a post-adventure aperitif in the Wandering Wyvern Inn… "Some reward. We can afford to resurrect one of my smaller toes."

Here are 39 maps created by cartographer Mike Schley that I keep in a folder on my desktop, just in case I need a little inspiration. Now you can be inspired, too!

Interviews and Profiles

• The Enchanted Inkpot (Caroline Hooton) on Jasmine Richards.
• The SFFWRTCHT Interview: Author N. M. Singel.
• Reddit interviews Michael Dirda.
• Geek's Guide to the Galaxy interviews Brian Greene (podcast).
• DisinfoCast  Matt Staggs interviews Warren Ellis (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Book View Cafe (Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff) on Writing Belief Systems.
• Janice Hardy on Crossing Words Off Your List: Making the Most of Editing "What Not to Use" Lists.
• Kate Elliott (Tansy Rayner Roberts) on Looking for the Women (in Ancient Rome).
• The King of Elfland's Second Cousin on Super Hero Narratives and Our Re-discovered Love for Them.
• Juliette Wade on Dialogue, and specificity: How talk depends on the talkers.
• Book Life Now (Jim C. Hines) on Do I Have to Have a Facetwibblogger+ Page?
• Inkpunks (Sam Sykes) on Serious Thoughts for Serious People.

News

• Electric Velocipede #24 Table of Contents.
• 2312 Website.
• Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012).

 Shadow Unit: Anomalous Crimes Season 1, Book 1 edited by Emma Bull, Elizabeth Bear

I wrote and edited over 12 000 words this last month working on Marvel Heroic Roleplaying supplements and material for my Seminars. That meant I spent a lot less time gaming and thus had less things to discuss on the blog. Yet, I did write a lot though.  I do love to blog about what I do. Thus I decided that I could afford to bring a  slight change of focus over here and start blogging about writing a little more.

Today, I wrote my first piece of Flash Fiction. I don’t know if it’s any good, but I’m proud of it. It’s an idea that popped in my mind as I was telling myself I should try my hand at it as a writing exercise in between freelance assignment. It’s amazing how challenging it can be to try to say so much in so little.

So here it is, slightly longer than this intro. Enjoy and let me know if I should do more.

At A Loss

A story by Philippe-Antoine Ménard

“Genny, I can’t take this anymore.” You could hear the exasperation rise rapidly in his voice. “I love you, I really do, but all of this… It’s just too much for me.” His fists were clenching and unclenching repeatedly, his stress and anxiety showing more than usual.

“Please give me just one good reason why we should stay together.” He expected to hear none.

“I’m pregnant.” Genny’s gentle eyes were brimming with tears.

An adrenal bomb went off in his nerve-wracked body. “What the fuck? Are you shitting me?”

“I didn’t want to tell you… Given the circum…”

“Don’t you dare go there Gen!” he said, his face reddening by the second.

“He’s not yours!” she shouted back before he went on his usual rant.

“WHAT?”

Genny’s distraught face was wet with tears “I’m so sorry, he’s David’s…”

His boiling blood froze. Feelings of loss and guilt overwhelmed his heart. Genny reached for him, “Oh dearie I’m so sorry…”

He raised his hand, silencing her, taking a moment to anchor himself back to reality.

“There’s only one other in this world I’d trust to raise this child.” he said, “Genny, will you marry me?”

 

Ah, the owlbear. This week, Senior Creative Director Jon Schindehette gives you some insight into what's going on with the owlbear, plus shows you how the process for creating concept art works.

The dungeon is an inseparable part of Dungeons & Dragons, but one that rarely gets put into the spotlight. Matt James discusses the joys and challenges of being a co-designer of the recently released Into the Unknown, the Dungeoneer Survival Guide.

In a world where powerful defilers rule over their populaces with an iron fist, more subtle dangers can go unnoticed. This has allowed a hidden threat to grow without arousing the suspicions of even the most vigilant defenders of the people. This threat is known as the tsochar, a species of parasitic creatures that take over the bodies and minds of their hosts, asserting their will in the place of an unsuspecting victim.

pukunui81 has added a photo to the pool:

We'd hardly gone more than a mile into the forest when we were set upon by some pesky druids and their pets while trying to make our way down a cliff via a giant tree.

They had us trapped. One wrong step would lead to a long fall into oblivion.

Since we were on a mission from Gruumsh, there was really only one viable choice ... fight to the death!

When the wolves pounced, Zissiren and I went back-to-back in hopes of fending them off before the elf chick could tangle us up in vines or something equally annoying.

Trog, meanwhile, stood protectively in front of Trixie and laid into the bear with his trusty club as it came charging for him, while Trixie prayed to Tiamat to make that other druid's antlers fall off (or something, I wasn't really paying attention).

I managed to slice through the skull of the wolf attacking me, but not before it scratched up my bare foot with its claws. Zissiren, on the other hand, did some tricky maneuver that sent his wolf howling off the edge of the tree branch. The elf chick looked a bit taken aback and hesitated, which was all the opening we needed. She never stood a chance.

The bear's claws proved pretty ineffectual against Trog's tough hide and it didn't last long before it was clubbed to the ground, at which point we discovered it had been another druid as the bear's corpse shifted back into humanoid form.

That left just the dude with the antlers on his head. He was like the head druid of the area or something. When he saw what we'd done, he tried summoning up a lightning storm, but Trixie countered that with an earthquake that actually did knock his antlers off his head. They went tumbling over the edge.

He stared dumbfounded, only to find himself swiftly tumbling after them with one mighty swing from Trog's club.

We shoved the other bodies over the edge and continued on our merry way.

Interviews and Profiles

• Lightspeed (Jennifer Konieczny) interviews Kage Baker.
• Lightspeed (Robyn Lupo) interviews C.C. Finlay.
• Prime Books (Molly Tanzer) interviews Adam Callaway.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Garth Nix.
• World SF Non-Western SF Roundtable (Part 2).
• The Functional Nerds interviews Jeff Patterson and Paul Weimer (podcast).
• The Skiffy and Fantasy Show interviews Pavarti K. Tyler (podcast).
• Sword and Laser episode 100 (podcast).
• Horror Writers Association Blog interviews Megan Hart.

Advice/Articles

• Janice Hardy on Forge Ahead: Ways to be a More Productive Writer, Part 4.
• Chuck Wendig on 25 Ways To Earn Your Audience.
• Lisa L. Hannett (Peter M. Ball) on Know Your Rights.
• Meilin Miranda (Cecilia Tan) on Long-term Relationships: Web serials and love.
• Book Life Now (Robert J. Bennett) on So what the hell is Urban Fantasy, anyway?
• Weird Fiction Review (Nancy Hightower) on When the Dead Speak, You Had Better Listen.
• Locus (Bryan Thao Worra) on Asian American SF Poetry.

News

• Strange Chemistry Signs Martha Wells in Two-Book Deal.
• The New York Review of Science Fiction Readings presents Charlie Jane Anders Brian Francis Slattery.
• Jay Kay Klein (1931-2012).

A Confusion of Princes  By Garth Nix

I originally posted this on my Google+ page, I am reposting it here for those not on G+.

I play tested space combat in my SW/Age hack last night, and it went pretty well.  I’m going to get into a bit of the crunchy AGE bits here, so bear with me if you don’t understand the AGE system mechanics.

So right off the bat I want to say that space combat assumes a grid, but it isn’t really necessary if you are just running a small skirmish.  Ships have a speed, and that determines how many squares/hexes they can move on the grid on the pilot’s turn.  Moving through occupied spaces is fine, as that symbolizes the 3d aspect of the grid.

Out first scenario was a stock YT-1300 in a fight against 3 tie fighters. The ship had to make a jump to light-speed while avoiding the ties.  Neither the stock yt1300 nor the Tie Fighters have shields.  (Shields in this hack are just hit points that sit on top of the regular ship’s hit points. They can fluctuate, kind of like 4e’s temp hit points mechanic.)

We had 4 players: a pilot, an astrogation guy plotting the jump to light-speed, and two gunners sitting in the turrets.

Dragon Age has an action economy of a Minor/Major action per turn. A move falls under a Minor action. You can also take 2 minors in a turn instead of taking a Major.  Under a space combat situation, every crew member of the ship can take both actions if he wants, although for some it would make no sense.  Like the guy at the astrogatrion computer would have no reason to take a minor action, while the gunners would, as aiming is a minor and grants a +1 to the attack.

Moving the ship its speed is a minor action for the pilot.  Attempting a special maneuver is a major.  Maneuvers grant special bonuses and other stuff.

Let me show an example of play.   Initiative will go like this :
Pilot
Tie Fighter 1
Tie Fighter 2
Astrogation
Gunner 1
Gunner 2

Round 1

Pilot:   I’m getting away from those ties while the astrogation guy plots lightspeed. I’m moving the ship its speed (minor action) and attempting the Corkscrew maneuver (major), it halves my speed on my next turn, but gains me a +2 to defense until the end of my next turn. My roll is a 3d6+Dexterity (Piloting). A 17!  Made it!  My turn is over.

Tie 1:   Tie 1 is quick, he easily comes within short range of you. He rolls a 15 (3d6+Dexterity (Starship Gunnery), he would have hit your ship’s defense of 14 (10+Pilot’s Dexterity+2 for Piloting Focus) but that cork screw maneuver threw him for a loop!  His turn is over.

Tie 2:   Using his minor, he pulls up behind you, in a space adjacent to his ally.   As a major action,  he’ll attempt the Howlrunner Formation maneuver instead of firing at you.  If successful, it’ll grant him a +2 to attacks for as long as he’s adjacent to his ally. Rolls 3d6+Dexterity (piloting), 18! He made it.   He’s attacking at a +2 for now, but can’t attack this round due to having spent his Major action on that maneuver. His turn is over.

Astrogation guy:   Astrogation during space combat is an AGE Advanced Test.   The GM has determined a difficulty of 13, with a threshold of 15. That means my Cunning (Astrogation) roll has to beat a 13, and my Force Die has to add up to 15 before the jump to light speed is successful. Coordinating this jump is going to take me a few seconds (rounds are 6 seconds in AGE), so keep us alive! I roll a 14 with a 5 on the Force Die! Made the check, and i’m 10 away from threshold! I’m done this round.

Gunner 1:   These guys moved in at close range, so I have a good chance. As a minor I aim, gaining a +1.  Tie 1 is going to get it from me! 3d6+Cunning(Starship gunnery) is a 16! I beat their defense of 14! Oh, I generated 5 stunt points! I’m resolving damage… 2d6+Perception is a 13! And I’m using the Lethal Blow stunt for an extra 2d6 worth of damage, for another 11! 24 points in one round!

GM:  With just 35 Health, that tie is at 11 hp now!

Gunner 2:  I go after Tie 2. Even aiming I rolled a 6. I miss.

Round 2

Pilot:   Ok, so my move is halved due to my manuever last round.   So as a minor, I circle around these guys, slowly.  As a major though, I’m gonna try to do the Afterburn maneuver, which lets me move triple the ship’s speed! 16! Did it! Even though I’m slowed I pulled that one off.   Let’s go astrogation, get us out of here! (Run in AGE is a major action, it lets you move double your speed.  This maneuver lets you move triple speed).

Astrogation: I botched my roll! All these maneuvers are throwing off the computer, it can’t pinpoint our exact location! Argh! We need a droid, he has a better chance than me! Turn is over.

Tie 1:   His move of 11 easily puts him close to your ship, he takes a shot, but misses!

Tie 2:   He moves adjacent to his ally, remember that his Howlrunner Formation maneuver is still active, so he attacks you at a +2,  and he hits! You take 11 points of damage.

Astrogation: I rolled a 14, beat the test! And a 6 on the Force Die. My threshold count is now at 11, 4 more and we’re outta here! Keep us alive guys…..

So as you can see, everyone has something to do while combat is taking place. There are maneuvers for the pilot that grant bonuses and other special things, the Astrogation guy is biting his nails trying to break out of here before the ship is blown to bits, and the gunners are doing their thing.

It works just like regular dragon Age combat but at a larger scale, while maintaining the regular action economy, stunts, and other things native to Dragon Age.

Thoughts?

This month's WoTC Book Club is focused on Brimstone Angels and the discussion has been particularly fiery, befitting the book itself!

You've got questions—we've got answers! Here's how it works—each week, our Community Manager will be scouring all available sources to find whatever questions you're asking. We'll pick three of them for R&D to answer.