Ostensible Cat

Probably no other fantasy character has inspired me more than Elric. Michael Moorcock’s albino anti-hero really struck a chord with me as a kid. I know today, the brooding antihero is common place theme in fantasy literature; but back in the early 1980’s and before, Elric really stood out. I’ve been rereading the saga (from the silver covered Berkley editions from the early 1980’s) and for me, it still stands the test of time as good fantasy reading. I have also gone back and bought several of the stories in graphic novel format (the ones by P. Craig Russell are pretty good). I did purchase Stormbringer several years ago, but AD&D ruled the roost with my gaming crowd and I could find more takers. I’ve recently begun to reinvestigate Elric!, Stormbringer, MRQ, etc and find that there is much to like. I’m currently really enjoying reading through OpenQuest and will get back to the other D100 Elric stuff after that. Ultimately, AD&D/D&D/Clones are most comfortab

I didn’t get a chance to post yesterday since I was off doing my day job and didn’t get home until late. So I didn’t get any time to really catch up on a few blogs I follow. I’m still busy today, but I wanted to take a moment to mention that I received my copy of OpenQuest and Mythic Russia today. I’m pretty excited about these two items because it shows that the hobbyist game developers and members of the OSR really have been successful not just in cloning older D&D properties, but indeed there is more going on out there than really gets mentioned. D101 games looks like it is the torch bearer for the RuneQuest/d100 game clone scene. I’ll admit, I’m not too much up on RuneQuest, never having played a game, but I’m certainly interested in it. I know for many European gamers, RuneQuest resonates more than D&D does and carries quite an impact over here still. I’d like to know more about that scene and I’m excited about going through OpenQuest and Mythic Russia. Right now f

Another side of the OSR that I haven’t much experience is with the d100 games based upon the Basic Role Playing engine (I'm probably late to the party on this one - nothing unusual here). In my glory days of role playing, it was pretty difficult for me to come by any gaming material that wasn’t TSR which of course meant that we played a lot of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, FASERIP Marvel Superheroes, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, etc. Occasionally, someone would happen upon something else that we’d incorporate into our RPG cycle (back then we tended to play D&D on Saturdays, Top Secret Fridays, Marvel Superheroes almost any free moment we could squeeze in, and Sundays would be one offs). When I was gaming in earnest back in 1986-88, I was a military brat and lived in West Germany, so my exposure to games was pretty much limited to whatever the PX/BX happened to stock. This was pretty much limited solely TSR products, but on occasion you’d get some FASA Star Trek or Battlete