What are you reading in 2024?

[JEB]

Decalog, the first of three Doctor Who anthologies from the '90s, all telling one big story. Haven't made it very far, but I'm enjoying it so far.

There's a nostalgia trip, I read those back in the 2000s. The themed Short Trips anthologies are also fun.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Working through The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk. This has been a real eye-opener.

Someone recommended this to me, may need to go onto the to-read stack at some point...

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I got a book for Christmas that I've already started. Can't wait to get into the recipes. First up, sauerkraut!

Wild Fermentation | Wild Fermentation :: Wild Fermentation

Resources for fermenting a vast range of nutritious and delicious live-culture foods and drinks.

www.wildfermentation.com

 

[Mannahnin]

you can currently buy the 1977 version on sale on Prime for $4.99.....it's tempting, but I can't imagine watching it over and over.

It's a great nostalgic background movie to toss on. Classic Glenn Yarbrough soundtrack, classic John Huston as Gandalf.

It is lovely. The music is excellent, the painted backgrounds are absolutely gorgeous. And yeah, more than just John Huston the voice casting is pretty amazing. I can see people not being into Orson Bean's version of Bilbo, though I think he's very accessible for kids. But Hans Conreid as Thorin, John Stephenson voicing Bard and the Great Goblin, and especially Richard Boone as Smaug are just so good. I think Boone is better than Cumberbatch. So good.

 

[ART!]

Someone recommended this to me, may need to go onto the to-read stack at some point...

When I first started reading it, I thought maybe it wasn't for me. The author is telling their journey as a professional into discovering what trauma is and does. He started in the late '70s, dealing with Vietnam vets and their war trauma, and that's why I thought maybe this isn't about me.

Pretty quickly, though, the applicability of what he learned - even very early on - to trauma in general becomes very clear. Trauma can be physical, mental, emotional, etc., but it all affects the mind and the body.

I recommend it.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I couldn't finish the Dying Earth. Boring to me. To each their own....

While I love Vance's writing, I can see how a person might bounce off of some of his foibles.

Little known fact: He gender-swapped all of the dwarves.

"It's true you don't see many Dwarf-women. And in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, that they are often mistaken for Dwarf-men."

 

[MNblockhead]

you can currently buy the 1977 version on sale on Prime for $4.99.....it's tempting, but I can't imagine watching it over and over.

Its one of few films I can watch again. I rewatch it every couple of years.

 

[MNblockhead]

I started reading the dying earth by Jack Vance just the other day. I haven't really been reading at all since we had a kid a few years back. It's been really cool to just... read. And the stories- man, they're weird!

I'm reading it to see if I'm interested in the Dying Earth boxed set for DCC. I want that and "the music of the spheres is chaos" boxed set, but I don't know which first (I've never played DCC before).

Anyway, yeah, The Dying Earth is weird and cool!

I backed the DCC Dying Earth kickstarter and am very happy with the product. I didn't own any DCC stuff prior to this, though I've play a straight DCC funnel one shot that a friend ran and I played a one-shot DCC Lankhmar game at a convention. A lot of DCC fans are not happy with how much the setting-specific rules and classes deviate from DCC standard, but I that is also why I like it. It is really more targeted towards Dying Earth fans more than DCC fans. I like games with a strong setting and rules to support that setting's themes. I have not run games in it yet because there isn't good VTT support for it and I don't want to do all the work to prep it on the VTT. When I can run games in person again, this will be at the top of my list to run.

 

[MNblockhead]

The Dying Earth boxed set adds a lot of complexity to base DCC. I would make that a later purchase. I'd run the adventure in the core book (the adventures vary between printings) first and maybe one of the one-shot adventures.

Kinda. Some of the classes are wonky. But it also cuts out most of the standard DCC classes. While you can bring in standard races and classes, I personally wouldn't do so. When I run it, I really want to immerse myself and the players in the Dying Lands setting. My one gripe is that you have to buy the core book, even though so much of the setting replaces what's in the core book. I with they would have added just the basic rules you need to play so that the boxed set would have everything you need to play.

 

[MNblockhead]

In addition to the Dresden Files, I've also been diving into Warhammer Fantasy lore. Most of that has been from the 4th edition rulebooks and adventures. But I've also been listening to podcasts on Warhammer lore and reading various Warhammer wikis, blogs, and forums and hanging out on the Ratcatcher's Discord server. I'm just trying to soak in the lore and feel in prep for my new Ubersreik campaign. I'm rather intimidated by the 30+ years of Warhammer canon and I don't intend to try to get "caught up" or hew closely to canon. You don't really need that to run the game.

Warhammer lore shouldn't work for me, but it does. In some ways it is just a lazy kitchen sink of loosely abstracted real-world cultures and D&D / Tolkien fantasy tropes. Yet mixed together and simmered for 30 years, it has created a tasty and filling result in a way that Forgotten Realms never did for me. I've never read any of novels or comics that take place in the Warhammer universe. For any Warhammer fans, are there any novels or books set in the Old World that you would recommend?