Recent content by piper909

Boy Howdy!!!

The notorious Duke of Wharton and his Hellfire Club make a short but memorable appearance in Anya Seton's historical novel "Devil Water" (which I highly recommend), set in 18th century England and America.

Roger that! I do have some plastics, esp. larger than man-size creatures, so I'm not entirely a lost cause. I agree, metal dragons, e.g., tend to be ultra-expensive and ponderous and liable to damage from handling. I'm all in favor of that sort of plastic or resin model. (And dinosaurs! Toys...

I'm with metal all the way. Much easier to clean and file and I can't stand the flimsy weight of plastics or trying to assemble multiple-piece minis and getting the super glue on everything except where it belongs. Plus plastic breaks, bends, and is often not a crisp a sculpt and harder to prime...

I have long wanted to find a use for a tarot deck in a game, perhaps taking the place of a regular card deck. It has the same element of randomization as a regular card deck, but more so, with slightly larger suits plus the addition of the Major Arcana. And the "chrome" value of the tarot deck...

I politely disagree. The Silmarillion came out in 1977 and was rushed to completion and heavily abridged. We can see that from the later, full-length narratives that have been published since. Also, as "The History of Middle-Earth" series was edited and published, over succeeding decades, many...

Whoa, that's harsh. To this day, I know many, many women of various ages for whom Scarlett O'Hara is a heroine (flawed, but heroic) whose character does evolve over the course of the novel (maybe more so than the film version). I don't see how she merits being placed among the "worst people...

If you are of a certain age, you grew up with only books (or comics), pre-dating any of the D&D games or any of the movies -- hence, people like me and my friends, in middle school/early high school, reading fantasy and sci-fi, discovering wargames (Avalon Hill, SPI), and Lord of the Rings...

Can't find this listed on Amazon's site for a pre-order. Is it being restricted in some way to Target? What about hobby retail stores?

I may only be allowed two dolls, but I have over 9,000 miniature figures and related items!

Yes, Axis & Allies is a far better game.

I'll make time this week. I'm fairly equanimous (Oops, that's not a word!) about it all by now. I wasn't there for the later civil wars or purges. It remains my best job experience to this day, looking back! Despite the rancor so many of us felt at the time. Hey, I figured out how to make a...

Heh! I dug up a copy of my first TSR weekly paycheck from May 1980. I was making $3.60/hour and punched in for 37 hours that first week. So you can guess how much I took home after taxes and Soc Sec. I can't post the image here because of SS number.

I don't think any of the Product Development staff knew that Gary was being paid royalties while we were denied them (having to sign "work for hire" statements as a condition of employment). That's news to me, reading over this topic. I think we sort of assumed as a president of the company, his...