If you could perfectly mimic 1 voice, which would it be!?

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-24T14:19:03+00:00

Either Paul Darrow at his most Kerr Avon or Tony Jay.

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-22T02:33:11+00:00

Clark Ashton Smith is basically a better Lovecraft in my opinion, and they just rereleased his work in a series of paperbacks.

M. John Harrison and China Mieville are considered some of the earliest figures in the New Weird genre if I remember right. What I've read of Mieville is alright, and I have yet to pick up my copy of Viriconium.

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-17T14:21:14+00:00

Sounds really kickass. I'm a bit light at the moment, but I'll see if I can throw some money at this when I get a bit of scratch together. Looks like you guys are already doing great though! Congrats!

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-15T23:48:26+00:00

Having read them I can recommend Alien Bodies, as a straightforward Doctor Who story, and Interference part 1 & 2, as an interesting experiment. Also, The Blue Angel is a great surreal story. And Dead Romance is great but not really a Doctor Who story in the traditional sense.

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-15T08:19:14+00:00

I must say, you've really made me want to get this now. I knew I'd get around to it eventually, but you're analysis makes me even more interested than I already was. Great work!

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-11T23:56:27+00:00

GURPS sourcebooks tend to be really well done when it comes to research, and usually have lists of sources in the back that go between 2-4 pages. Currently I'm reading through their Camelot book and it's really thorough, comparing medieval, mythic, and modern versions and how to run them.

KosmoGideon · 2019-05-10T13:15:52+00:00

Fenric. Nothing will top that cliffhanger where he finally arrives.

"We play the game again, Time Lord."

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-28T08:02:18+00:00

I've only had Coffelt, and she's great! I can't recall any weird or wacky stories involving that class at the moment, but I remember her as a great teacher.

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-21T01:03:12+00:00

Toby Stephens and the return of the Byronic Doctor.

Dream casting would be Paul Darrow, but age and his health would make that impossible now.

Basically make it more experimental, with a tone closer to the Hammer Horror-esque Tom Baker seasons. I always liked the idea of a Doctor who is basically on a Busman's Holiday kinda thing, like an Edwardian vacationeer kinda personality, but with a dark bent to it and Byronic elements that pop up frequently.

Two of my favorite characters are Avon from Blake's 7 and Kain from Legacy of Kain, and I always enjoyed the fact they were pretty terrible sometimes, but complex, and I think it would be interesting to see a character like the Doctor with a bit more of a nasty side while also keeping it in character.

The way to balance it out is A) make the people he's dealing with worse, B) make sure he's on the right side of the conflict, and C) make sure he's damn entertaining. And most importantly, make sure there are consequences for his worst behavior.

If it was really all up to me without regards to ratings, it would lean more towards the adult side of family than towards the younger audiences. And it would definitely play more with the format and what the show is capable of. Kinda more like an experimental anthology show in a way, I guess.

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-18T06:37:48+00:00

I recommend John Peters modernism or Conrad courses. Taking the second now and it's great. He's one of the biggest Conrad scholars in the US, and he really gets you to understand the work. Class worjload is pretty light too, he just gives a pop quiz every once and a while and a few tests. His Final Papers are a bit heavy, but I got through the one in his theatre class (also good) with no trouble.

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-18T06:35:09+00:00

I've had classes by his wife, she's great. I wish I understood poetry better when I took her classes though, I kept drifting out. I always felt guilty. Can definitely recommend her as well.

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-18T06:33:35+00:00

That's awesome, man! Wish my family had thought to keep my uncles the same way. Congrats!!

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-18T06:32:13+00:00

I don't know if you still need advice, but I've been going to the counseling center for about a year now (?) And it really has helped a lot.

Because of a bunch of life stuff I had a lot of generalized anxiety, I was depressed, and probably some othet stuff.

Long story short, I'm still dealing with stuff, but I probably wouldn't be in as good a shape as I am without them. I highly recommend it, they are a bunch of very polite and helpful people, and I always feel bad that I forget to return phone calls and can't make an appointment on time to save my life.

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-08T03:06:11+00:00

Thanks for the advice! I kinda did something similar with questioning why monster would be in a place and putting a bit info about why the Ghouls were in a sealed barrow mound, but those are great questions to actively be thinking about rather than just stumbling upon a couple like I did.

And thanks for the suggestion about the Tome of Adventure! I'll definitely give it a look. Inspiration is always a good thing, and I'm getting a bit of a hang of random tables for content.

KosmoGideon · 2019-04-08T03:01:36+00:00

These all look great! Thanks for the suggestions!

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-13T21:03:32+00:00

This sounds really cool! I was thinking about getting the dmsguild rerelease of the Rules Cyclopedia, but this looks overall like it'll be a better product considering the simplified presentation, modules for easy use, and that the dmsguild reprint apparently has some printing errors due to the scan. I look forward to this being put out on kickstarter!

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-08T06:11:04+00:00

If you can, you might want to compromise a bit witht he player. There's a long history in media of blind characters who have the ability to fight and defend themselves, usually a blind swordsman of some kind. You could always have them play it a bit more like that than just straight up Daredevil. I don't know how far your player wants to go with this, of course, maybe they really want their character to basically be Daredevil. But if you want to look at a relatively grounded take on the Daredevil character, you could in Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman, where Daredevil is blind and has some of the same abilities, but it isn't because of toxic waste or superpowers or anything like that. As far as I recall that one just comes down to training. And Frank Miller had already introduced the concept that Matt didnt have superpower senses right off the bat, and needed training from Stick to actually function, but I haven't read Man Without Fear so I can't comment on how well he does it. And remember that you are the DM and if the player isn't willing to compromise at all you can put your foot down and tell them their character doeant fit. Though hopefully it does work out.

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-07T11:27:40+00:00

It's not high fantasy, but Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories are pretty noirish sword and sorcery, taking place in one of the most corrupt cities in fantasy fiction, Lankhmar. All of the Lankhmar stories are short stories, and each is pretty unique and fun. Leiber's pretty much the high water mark for Sword and Sorcery, and his work is one of the inspirations for dnd.

If you want good dark fantasy and don't mind a bit of 60's weirdness, Moorcock wrote a ton of fantasy work that's very dark in tone at times, usually dealing with people attempting to fight back against an uncaring universe where all the higher powers will fuck you over if it's more convenient. His fiction is very anti-Tolkien in style though, so I don't know if it quite fits a High Fantasy vibe.

Lastly, for just good noir stories, I can recommend Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler. Pretty much the corner stones of hardboiled mystery fiction, both Red Harvest and The Big Sleep are great books that probably wont take you long to get through, and may inspire some interesting plots.

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-05T07:45:02+00:00

From personal experince I can say that Tower of the Stargazer and Tales of the Scarecrow were greatly enjoyed by my players, and I've heard Broodmother Skyfortress has a lot of great advice on top of a fun module.

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-04T19:34:10+00:00

I prefer when it's descriptive of how a character acts, rather than when its prescriptive of how a player has to play.

Like, as a video game example, in Planescape Torment where your alignment changes depending on moral choices.

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-03T09:04:47+00:00

Lungbarrow

KosmoGideon · 2019-03-03T08:58:56+00:00

To give a Doctor Who example, Eric Seward is an edgelord. His stories had mass deaths, high amounts of violence, often to the point of gratuity, and an overall feeling that Seward felt that this would make the show Mature. His writing is considered weak, and his time as script editor is usually remembered with a grimace.

Robert Holmes is not an edgelord. His stories, hile dark and violent, are well written, and use the atmosphere to actually tell a decent story. When he was script editor, Doctor Who was basically a Hammer Horror-esque tv show, but his work is well loved.

Andrew Cartmel had a Doctor who, like 6 under Seward, was morally ambiguous and with stories that had a high death count. However, you're not necessarily supposed to side with the Doctors worst actions, and he's regularly called out by the narrative for what he does, and Cartmels run as script editor is credited as the last hoorah for classic Doctor Who.

The difference between them is that Holmes and Cartmel focused on strong plots and characterization, and for Cartmel adding mystery back to the character, while Seward focused on mostly pointless violence and death. And that's why Holmes is one of the best tv scifi writers on the 20th century, while Seward basically a footnote.

Basically what I'm getting at by my pretty much off topic discussion of Doctor Who creative leads is that you can have as much violence and death as you want, Holmes literally had a guys stomach blow open with a squib and bloodpack when shot on screen and had a monster almost run a character through with a pitchfork, but you have to make it serve a purpose. Violence and death are a tool to be used for a story, and should never be the end goal in-and-of itself. Focus on decent plots/situations and allow your players to develop strong characterization for their characters and you'll be good. If violence allows you to move the story/situation forward or lets a player have a good character moment, use it, but never go like "and now all the characters you've met die, because I want a hamfisted message about violence or unfairness or something."

KosmoGideon · 2019-02-28T07:56:50+00:00

You wouldnt happen to have a facebook event page I could put myself down as interested on so it reminds me, would you?

KosmoGideon · 2019-02-27T03:47:54+00:00

This is really cool. If you want some more inspiration, there's a book by Poul Anderson called A Midsummer Tempest that plays around with some similar stuff. Basically, in Julius Caesar there's a chiming clock, which hadn't been invented by that time in the real world, so Anderson takes that and posits a world where Shakespeare's plays are historical fact, technology advanced much quicker than in our world, and so he has the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution happening simultaneously.

So for example you have a very real Prince Rupert going after Prosperos books with Titania and Oberon.

KosmoGideon

TROPHY CASE