The Slumbering Lungfish Dybbuk Hostel and All-Night Boulangerie

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Lore — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 17:24:04 +0000

A Wistful Geek Heads for Sweet iPhone Hell.

SasqWatch 2813

Lore — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:49:59 +0000

I just thought you-plural might be interested to know that Paul Southworth is doing a comic strip within a comic-strip, a little storyline called SasqWatch2813. Personally, I think we need to send Paul through some sort of transporter accident so he can update both strips, simultaneously, forever.

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Lore — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:36:35 +0000

‘World of Warcraft’ Masters In-Game Bribery.

You will all be pleased to know that after writing this, I finally got my dumb little dragon.

I Am Going to an Acronym

Lore — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:42:57 +0000

I’m going to be attending ROFLthing San Francisco on the evening of Friday, 29 August. Why? Well, partly because I was invited, and partly because Chris Onstad is going to be there, and what the hell, I own enough of his merchandise, may as meet the dude.

Anyhow, apparently I am, myself, an attraction at this little geek-together, so if you want to see me take undue advantage of an open bar in actual real life, feel free to buy one or more tickets. And if you see me, feel free to just walk right up and introduce yourself. You don’t want to exhibit the same sort of creepy, standoffish stalking behavior I’m going to inflict on Chris Onstad.

(Photo courtesy janascho)

Templar, Arizona

Lore — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:37:47 +0000

I don’t read a lot of long-form webcomics. In part, this is because you can’t always just leap into a long-form comic in the middle and know what the hell is going on, and in part it’s because reading a long-form comic a page at a time can be frustrating. I often feel like I spend half the reading time just trying to remember what happened last time.

Nonetheless, I’m slowly becoming a convert, and Templar, Arizona has been instrumental in convincing me that the effort is worth it. The story is set in an alternate Arizona. It’s not a world where apes evolved from mimes, or where Argentina won the Falklands War — as far as I know — it’s just…weird. Intriguingly odd. Compellingly strange.

The characters are wonderfully designed and adeptly drawn, both in the literal artistic sense and the figurative literary sense. Reading the archives, you get the sense that there’s a lot of there there, that stories are waiting to be told and secrets are just itching to be revealed. If Spike, the author, doesn’t have reams of notes on the place, she’s doing a great job faking it.

I enjoyed just diving in and figuring stuff out from context, but if you’re not up to that, there’s a handy info page to get you acclimated. I’d still suggest starting at the beginning, though.

News Article

Lore — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:58:45 +0000

So here’s the result of the call for interviewees the other day: ‘True Dungeon’ Lures Would-Be Dragon Slayers. (Not comedy, although to be fair almost anything involving fantasy gaming is kinda funny.)

Anyhow, thanks again to those who responded!

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Lore — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:37:14 +0000

How to Get Published and Avoid Alien Bloodsuckers.

This is kind of an unusual approach for me. Initially, I was going to have the essay be a collection of silly advice, something like “legitimate publishers won’t pay you in video game tokens” and so forth. But as I was writing it, I decided that I wanted to provide actual useful advice, so I tried to do so in a funny way.

(Photo courtesy jepoirrier)

Wanted: Dungeoneers

Lore — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:11:11 +0000

I’m looking for people who have gone through the “True Dungeon” event at Gen Con in past years, and who are willing to chat with me about the experience for an article I’m writing.

If you are such a person, please e-mail me at truedungeon@lungfish.com. If you know someone who’s done the event, please ask them to get in touch.

Thanks!

Update: I think I’ve got all the respondents I need. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

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Lore — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:33:04 +0000

Behold! The Sacred Swordlike Tool of Fire Warriors.

Couple notes. The Gary of whom I speak is Gary Tyrrell of Fleen. EMT people have a lot of interesting stories.

Also, I didn’t write the title for this one, but I really like it.

New Monster Manual Comix

Lore — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:56:28 +0000

Orc

The appearance of the orcs in this comic is, of course, based on the drawing in the 1977 Monster Manual. They don’t actually look that intimidating. They kind of look like a cross between a razorback and Winnie the Pooh.