[~OT] What should I buy? (Long...er than I thought)

[NiTessine]

Well... For literature, Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn-trilogy is excellent. Just see to it that you get it as a trilogy, not fifteen thin hardbacks like one company published it.
George R. R. Martin isn't bad, either. Never heard of that Beagle chap, though.

Movies, then... All of the ones you mentioned are very good films, and I can recommend all of them. Gladiator is the weakest of the lot, but even then it's still good.

As for music... My tastes run to even more 'before my time' all the way to the 1600s. An opera ticket is always a good way to throw money away.

Then, D&D. I've recently acquired AEG's
Rokugan and Mongoose Publishing's Seas of Blood. I think both are deserving of a place in my bookshelf. I've also had an eye on AEG's Evil and Dungeons for a while. They are good, or so I hear.

 

[Holden MaGroin]

I'll step in to do some "seconding"--

Books: Go get the GRRMartin Song of Ice and Fire books now. Truly, all other fantasy has been spoiled for me after reading them. It's a long, painful wait until the next book, but since you get to read all of the first 3 together, it shouldn't be too bad for you. They sort of tie up a bunch of loose ends and the next books carry on with the story after some time (I know - the next book is the "5 year gap" book - but the first 3 really for the "first act" in the story). A Game of Thrones is the first book that ever surprised me.

D&D: I'm going out to pick up Piratecat's adventure this weekend. I've spent long hours at work getting through the day by reading his story hour, so I think it'll be worth the money. Besides, I like to support the board members.

- HM

 

[Wild Karrde]

Books: I have enjoyed George R.R. Martin and Tad Williams both. However Martin is the best out there right now as far as I'm concerned. And the author who's not on your list but is right behind Martin would have to be Terry Goodkind.

Movies: Well I really enjoyed Gladiator but in my minf the best movie out in the last few years (besides FoTR) Would have to be
The Patriot. That movie rocks baby.

Music: You don't want my advice on this, heh.

RPG: I'm sticking to Sword & Sorcery and Wizards for right now, they both do a decent job and I enjoy there stuff. I'm also a Hero system, i.e. Champions whore.

Please keep in mind this is all subjective and based on my tastes or lack thereof. If none of this helps you could always send the money my way and I'll, uh, ummmm, uh, invest it wisely....yeah that's it, I'll invest it wisely.

 

[The Cardinal]

Literature

[*]George R R Martin

A Song of Ice and Fire is a must read - also look out for Steven Erikson's Malazan Books of the Fallen...


Movies

[*]The Thirteenth Warrior
every RPGamer should see this...
[*]Gladiator *
simply a good movie.


Roleplaying
...you might want to expand your RPG horizon a little by buying some non-d20 stuff (BESM, GURPS, CoC, Delta Green, AFMBE, etc...)

 

[Nightfall]

Pimping is such a ugly word...

I perfer the term, "casting the nets"

Well Ter, I won't pressure other than to say that maybe you should combine your literature tastes WITH your D&D taste. Champion of the Scarred Lands, an anthology about SL, IS out and available. Course if you want separate tastes...well I'd suggest then you try out Hollowfaust. Mithril is nice but Hollowfaust...is DIFFERENT.

 

[Zaukrie]

Tad Williams is very good, but the books in his fantasy trilogy get weaker as they go on. I'd buy Elizabeth Moon's fantasy books, they are great lessons in how to play a paladin. As an ex-marine herself (I believe that was her branch), she has a great perspective.

Thirteenth Warrior is a very good movie, but it is one that you either love or hate.

Music is very tough, but I always recommend XTC and Ben Harper to anyone who asks.

RPG, I've found the pdfs from Monte's company to be very good values, Relics and Rituals is a great buy if you're into magic, and I could go on and on but then I own too much RPG stuff.

 

[Rel]

Literature
I really love reading...


Music
Like most people, I enjoy music. I'm rather selective, and extremely narrow minded. I prefer music from 'before my time,' specifically Simon & Garfunkle, Don McLean, Cat Stevens, and James Taylor,

For good reading, I would recommend most of the stuff put out by Steven Brust. I really like all his stuff, especially the more ecclectic (Brokedown Castle, To Reign in Hell and The Sun, The Moon and The Stars to name a few) but I would strongly recommend the Jhereg books. You can now get most of them in these large volumes that contain several books each.

As far as music goes, you are one of the only people on these boards that seems to share many of my musical tastes. I like a lot of the male singers from the singer/songwriter period like those you listed. I would also strongly recommend Jackson Browne if you like that stuff. If you wanted a "greatest hits" type album, he's got one called "The Next Voice You Hear...". If you wanted to start with one of his regular albums, you can't go wrong with "Running on Empty", "The Pretender" or "Saturate Before Using".

Have fun spending that money

 

[Artoomis]

If you've really got 400-600 bucks burning a hole in your pocket, please e-mail me and I'll give you instructions on how to deposit it in my bank account. I can assure that it will be very well spent - proabably on something that is electronic and computerized like a new color PDA.

I'd be only too happy to take this burden from you.

On a more serious note, it sounds like you've got lots of good suggestions. You might want to check into using PCGen for your character info, then you can get a Palm-based PDA and use PCGenView to store your characters and use as an excellent tabletop playing aid. It's what I do.

For more info, see the Software forum on PCGen.