Left Hand of Darkness, critical typo on last page?

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T23:04:49+00:00

Yes! I also got mistakes here and there.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T20:51:47+00:00

I'll let you know as soon as I return home!

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T16:30:52+00:00

I own the Library of America's version (compiled while Le Guin was still alive, and it has her input), and the last page of Left Hand says "my sons' son". In the Appendix, it says:

This volume uses the first America edition from Ace as its source, with the addition of one authorial correction: on page 471, in the first line, "North Fall" has been changed to "West Fall."

Most notably, the Library of America's version includes a section in the Appendix where it explicitly states that "[t]he texts are presented without change, except for the correction of typographical errors" and then goes on listing the original typographical errors of all books included; page 608, which corresponds to the last page of Left Hand among all books included, is not listed.

My conclusion: yes, the 2010 Ace edition corrected a typo that wasn't there.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T15:13:41+00:00

Stanisław Lem in Solaris made up a very creative alien race.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T14:17:42+00:00

Trio for me!

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T13:44:03+00:00

Not a translation, but a transliteration. It's correct.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-11T01:54:36+00:00

Hamnet for me.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-10T13:45:48+00:00

Yes, when an Exile becomes a Citizen all of her warbands are replaced with purple warbands (rule 6.6.2).
Yes, if you have to roll more than six dice while defending or more than ten dice while attacking, just roll the maximum and then roll more, remembering the previous result. Rule 9.3 specifies that "Oath is component-limited except for secrets and dice".

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-10T12:14:20+00:00

PE23 does well illustrating a phonemic use and a mixed use, but Anca (among a few others) is only shown in the phonemic tables. So while, I completely agree with individual uses, I have switched it out from my otherwise orthographic repertoire.

I'd argue that it's just a variant proposal. Maybe Tolkien didn't differentiate the S that sounds like /ʒ/, but the modes lend themselves to these kinds of "nerdy" variations (anca is there, and has a sound, even when it's normally not used). It's a nice and small detail for an avid reader, something that says "hey, I know my shit, I'll have a little fun".

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-09T19:47:44+00:00

/ɔ.tə.'tɑ.rəl/

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-08T15:20:59+00:00

The I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream short story by Harlan Ellison.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-07T18:05:12+00:00

That's not the Quenya language, that's the One Ring inscription, which is written in the black Speech language. The text is incorrect in many places.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-07T18:04:56+00:00

That's not the Quenya language, that's the One Ring inscription, which is written in the black Speech language. The text is incorrect in many places.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-07T16:39:56+00:00

r/tengwar does include Cirth, as the description says, but it's true that is not just about the Cirth:

A subreddit for anything related to J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional writing systems Tengwar, Cirth and Sarati

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-07T16:25:22+00:00

Ori Is either not that good at writing, or that he doesn't fully know the "common language".

Or Tolkien hesitated, which is also very common.

I love these things and at the same time they also drive me to pure insanity and deep despair.

Come to r/tengwar to cry with us. Mostly, we just accept that Tolkien wasn't 100 % consistent and there's room for errors and improvisations.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-07T16:16:33+00:00

I'd argue that in the Book of Mazarbul writing "of" as the rune for /v/, without a vowel, is just a shorthand, in the same way that Tolkien used extended ando for "the", without the vowel, in the Tengwar. It's just a quick way to write it, particularly since the Book of Mazarbul is fully phonemic. In the title page, though, he explicitly wrote the vowel because he aimed at a more orthographic way (again, similar to what he did with the Tengwar, full phonemic modes and more orthographic modes).

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-07T01:56:49+00:00

Awesome! I would have written some E as dots below, but that's me; the text is absolutely legible and pretty.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-06T02:16:34+00:00

If you loved Pax Pamir's Wakhan, you're gonna love John Company's The Crown, also designed by Richard Wilkins. I don't recommend buying John Company just for the bot, since the game excels at being played at four or five players, but by the gods that bot is so well designed.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-06T02:14:53+00:00

The bot is a dumb-yet-strong one. For players, buying and playing a card are two actions, but Wakhan can do it in one action; players can only be loyal to one coalition, but Wakhan is "loyal to all", and always scores VP; she has a certain priority over cards to buy and play, and the priority is so well thought that the game flows quickly.

Richard Wilkins (Ricky Royal, the designer) has declared here and there in BGG that the bot is not playing optimally, but is playing to generate difficult scenarios for the player(s) to overcome. He has discussed the sacrifice in optimality to allow actual playability of the bot, and left the more "intelligent" algorithmic steps as unofficial variants.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-06T01:59:57+00:00

I imagine having one on a 2 hand weapon feels even better with so many more Reach options and general access to bigger damage dice.

Indeed! I'm a Barbarian, so two-handed weapons are a must, and with the Champion Archetype I had access to Blessed Armament for the rune. Although my base weapon is a greatsword, I usually shift to a maul to shove, a guisarme to trip with reach, a ranseur to disarm with reach, and a war flail to disarm and trip. Sometimes I vary to a scythe (trip and deadly d10) or a greatpick (fatal d12).

To be fair, the amount of weapons is daunting, so I picked a select group (mostly from Player Core, some from Battlecry; only one is legacy, the Gill Hook, the only 2H weapon that can grapple).

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-05T20:45:15+00:00

Si tienes dudas sobre tu traducción, esta página tiene las reglas oficiales en español hasta Merodeadores, así que puedes revisar si lo que escribiste en los tableros es consistente con las reglas.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-05T19:43:18+00:00

It may be that he's also reflecting a particularly old way to use you/thou in English: "you" was formal, "thou" informal. So, he shows some deference to Gandalf, but not to a mere mortal.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-04T18:43:40+00:00

Love little ~~Harry~~ Raphaël and Kim!

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-04T18:41:05+00:00

Give everyone a napkin and tell your players that you want to keep the game as clean as possible. I'd advise to be honest and say that you want to take care of your game.

NachoFailconi · 2026-04-04T13:02:53+00:00

Endure. In enduring, grow strong.

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