I’ve been thinking a lot about the seeming disconnect between the various generations of gamers, each of whom are convinced that their way to play a game… Read more “The Five Levels of Play Style”
Tag: 1980s
From the Vault: Superman, Man of Steel, and my Thoughts on Both
I’ve been aware of Superman, near as I can figure, since the age of five. Thirty-seven years. And as a member of Generation X, I had the… Read more “From the Vault: Superman, Man of Steel, and my Thoughts on Both”
From the Vault: Raiders of the Lost Ark Made Me This Way…
Over the years, I’ve tried, with middling success, to explain to folks just how important and influential Raiders of the Lost Ark was for me. It dropped into my… Read more “From the Vault: Raiders of the Lost Ark Made Me This Way…”
Table Talk: Chessex Stories-Lost Worlds, Part 1
One of the things I was most excited about working on was the relaunch of Lost Worlds, by game designer Al Leonardi. Al’s contributions are largely forgotten… Read more “Table Talk: Chessex Stories-Lost Worlds, Part 1”
Top 5 Horror Movies of the 1980s
Mullets, Synthesizers, and Day-Glo Swatches. Also, Dungeons & Dragons, Heavy Metal, and the ever-present threat of nuclear holocaust. It should come as no surprise that with all… Read more “Top 5 Horror Movies of the 1980s”
From the Vault: The Movies of Dungeons & Dragons, Part 5 – the End of an Era
Sword and Sorcery became an exploitation genre, rife with quickie production schedules, recycled sets, props and costumes, and written-on-the-fly scripts that checked boxes for mandatory story elements.… Read more “From the Vault: The Movies of Dungeons & Dragons, Part 5 – the End of an Era”
From the Vault: The Movies of Dungeons & Dragons, Part 4 – The Best of the Rest
Fourth in a 5 part series about the sword and sorcery movies of the 1980s as they related to our Dungeons & Dragons games.
From the Vault: The Movies of Dungeons & Dragons, Part 3 – Secondary Sources
As the 1980s trundled on, fueled by Miami Vice, swatches, and Duran Duran videos, the fantasy films should have gotten better, but they didn’t. After such a promising start, the rush to make more of the same spawned a host of shittier and shitter sword and sorcery movies, each one worse that the last. The genre had split into two tracks: cheap-o boob-grab exploitation nonsense, or big budget ham-fisted embarrassments, and both of these new movie styles served to give Sword and Sorcery a bad name.
From the Vault: The Movies of Dungeons & Dragons, Part 2 – the Harryhausen Playbook
Second in a 5 part series about the sword and sorcery movies of the 1980s as they related to our Dungeons & Dragons games.
From the Vault: The Movies of Dungeons & Dragons, Part 1
First in a 5 part series about the sword and sorcery movies of the 1980s as they related to our Dungeons & Dragons games.