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  1. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General Do you play in person or online?

    Online. The one group has someone a state away, so we're staying that way. The other group could meet in person, but we've come to really enjoy the convenience of online gaming.
  2. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General What Campaign Would Appeal the Most?

    2e Mere of Dead Men, no contest. Bring on the kits (Or maybe not. As much as they are a signature mechanic of 2e, I'm not always sure they were the right move)!
  3. Ralif Redhammer

    What are you reading in 2025?

    I finished reading Neuromancer. It has to have been at least 15 years since I last read it. And it's still, positively one of the most electric books I've ever read. I spent ten minutes weighing what to follow it up with. In the end, rather than try to match it, I went the opposite route and...
  4. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

    Definitively. And it's not just the fact that their kids are reading fantasy, but that your doctor felt comfortable bringing it up with you in the first place.
  5. Ralif Redhammer

    What are you reading in 2025?

    Two of my favorite books, those. Discovering them for the first time as a teenager was mind-blowing.
  6. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

    I think Patrick Rothfuss gets by on a lot of his flaws due to how gorgeous and lyrical his writing is. While I am hoping that there's a degree of unreliable narrator at work, particularly with some of the more absurd stuff in Wise Man's Fear, to date there has been no indication that that is...
  7. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General Favorite Iconic D&D Metropolis

    CISO was a groundbreaking release, coming out four years before the Greyhawk Folio, six years before Flying Buffalo's Citybook I. That was one trippy adventure.
  8. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

    Anyone else remember in the 90s when a VHS tape with 2-3 episodes of an anime show on it cost $20? So good. The psychedelia is something that went over my head as a kid, probably because it was too heavy and out there for me to encompass.
  9. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

    I read Lumley's Necroscope series when I was younger, but I didn't discover his Titus Crowe series until much later, when I went deep into Appendix N research. It's a decent take, though I think the second book in the series is a bit of a wobble.
  10. Ralif Redhammer

    What are you reading in 2025?

    That sounds way better than the paperback I grew up reading - it had such a hideous cover, like a bad illustration of Bela Lugosi. Still, I read it until it fell apart.
  11. Ralif Redhammer

    The Greatest Literary Villains of All Time

    Yeah, it's got to be Dracula, with all apologies to Sauron. Dracula's impact is just massive, and as a villain he is loaded down with symbolism that continues to resonate through the ages.
  12. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

    The works of Ruthanna Emrys, Victor LaValle, Kij Johnson, even Brian Lumley take HPL's ideas and run with them either without the bigotry, or directly addressing it. I love M.R. James! Perfect for creeping dread and whelming superstition. HPL was not the only one doing cosmic horror, or the...
  13. Ralif Redhammer

    What are you reading in 2025?

    Frankenstein is a complex tale, and one that continues to cast a spell on readers. I revisit it and Dracula every once in a while and find that both stories retain their impact, continue to evolve as I do, continue to horrify.
  14. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General Favorite Iconic D&D Metropolis

    As much as I want to say the Free City of Greyhawk, it's Waterdeep. A city I've run so many games in that I can vividly see and smell it. Now, if the question was "Favorite Iconic D&D Village," that's going to be Solace or Hommlet.
  15. Ralif Redhammer

    What are you reading in 2025?

    I finished reading Lisa Mason's Arachne. A great and oftentimes forgotten entry in cyberpunk fiction, with protagonists far different from the norm (a young lawyer and a misanthropic robot). A bit of Gibson, a bit of legal drama, a dash of Pynchon-style absurdity. I also finished Nalo...
  16. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General No One Reads Conan Now -- So What Are They Reading?

    The Carter/ De Camp contributions don't always work, but I would posit "The Thing in The Crypt" in the first one stands tall among them. Certainly, its influence on the 1982 movie is clear.
  17. Ralif Redhammer

    Missing players and other players running their PCs

    I can say that I've never seen a player take over another player's character in their absence. We generally just fade out that character and they rejoin when they show up. As far as what the threshold is for absent players and cancelling a session, I think it depends a bit on the system. Some...
  18. Ralif Redhammer

    D&D General Need Nightime Creature concept.

    Making one of the oozes only come out at night could be pretty creepy.
  19. Ralif Redhammer

    It's GM's Day! Tell us about your first GM!

    A definite point, that. I first read the OD&D books when the deluxe reprints came out. I have a strong doubt that I would've been able to make sense of OD&D at all without either someone to explain it to me or the years of gaming knowledge I came to it with. I did run a game of it a few years...
  20. Ralif Redhammer

    You're approached by a Hollywood exec...

    Yeah, as @billd91 pointed out, even doing that is fraught. It might be possible to pull it off, but there are so many landmines inherent in the character. As influential as Tarzan is, his time may have passed. I'd be down with another go at adapting Pellucidar. If I recall correctly, it would...
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