What are you reading in 2024?

[HaroldTheHobbit]

It's probably not thick enough, but here's a felt book cover. I did check to see if there was a book leash or book tether but got bupkus in terms of useful results.

Hmm, not bad. And I like your thinking - a felt/padded cover to protect the book from bedside table bump damage and dampen bump sound, with an attached leach to keep it from falling all the way to the floor.

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

Or just put down the dampening material and explain why it's there.

I'm not comfortable starting that debate. A not unplausable outcome would be that cloth gathering dust on the floor is a larger annoyance than me getting less bed reading time from her perspective. I'm more into the felt cover + book leach idea.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Polished off Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, which I finally read cover to cover, the other day. While much of it I had already picked up from the podcasts/YouTube videos, it's overall a very solid, actionable book of advice, especially for DMs who might sometimes find themselves overwhelmed by work. It obviously favors DMs more comfortable with improv (late in the book, Mike mentions that Matt Mercer preps for three hours for every one hour of game time, which is wild), but even for folks who want more stuff prepped than Mike, it's a very good book. Highly recommended.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished book 2 of Max Gladstone's Craft Wars trilogy, Wicked Problems. This is the volume that brings all the players together - everyone who we've come to know and love (or hate!) over the first Craft Cycle and v1 of the Craft Wars. Basically it's bringing everyone together, and sharpening the impending doom, making it real throughout the novel.

Ironically/Coincidentally/Strangely/Amazingly (not sure which adverb fits best) while reading Wicked Problems, I started a job as a contracts analyst. And it's amazing to me how law and contracts shapes our modern day reality. Gladstone wields a deft and subtle pen in portraying a world that's only a bit (ok, a LOT) like our own, with a nice fantasy twist. But behind it all he's very much impishly pointing out all the ways in which our modern world is like a soul sucking vampire. Just in the case of the world of the Craft, it literally is soul...

If you haven't read them, highly recommend.

Next up the most recent Ann Leckie Imperial Radch novel: Translation State

 

[prabe]

Finished book 2 of Max Gladstone's Craft Wars trilogy, Wicked Problems. This is the volume that brings all the players together - everyone who we've come to know and love (or hate!) over the first Craft Cycle and v1 of the Craft Wars. Basically it's bringing everyone together, and sharpening the impending doom, making it real throughout the novel.

Ironically/Coincidentally/Strangely/Amazingly (not sure which adverb fits best) while reading Wicked Problems, I started a job as a contracts analyst. And it's amazing to me how law and contracts shapes our modern day reality. Gladstone wields a deft and subtle pen in portraying a world that's only a bit (ok, a LOT) like our own, with a nice fantasy twist. But behind it all he's very much impishly pointing out all the ways in which our modern world is like a soul sucking vampire. Just in the case of the world of the Craft, it literally is soul...

If you haven't read them, highly recommend.

Next up the most recent Ann Leckie Imperial Radch novel: Translation State

I just gotta know: Does Wicked Problems have any wicked problems in it?

 

[Zaukrie]

Lots and lots of OLD adventures, while I try to build a plan of sorts for my Eberron campaign. Lots and lots of adventures.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I just gotta know: Does Wicked Problems have any wicked problems in it?

I think Max Gladstone lives (and maybe was raised?) in New England, so "Wicked" means more there than a lot of the rest of the world. Oh wait, there is a vampire who has appeared I think before, but certainly gets the most screen time in this volume. And she's pretty wicked

 

[JEB]

Finished For a Few Gold Pieces More, short story collection by Richard White. Basically a more modern take on pulp fantasy like Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, with a subplot of the nameless protagonist trying to hunt down the villain who made him an outlaw. Fairly solid overall: the best stories were the ones that stood alone, the weaker were the ones that mainly focused on the aforementioned subplot.

 

[prabe]

I think Max Gladstone lives (and maybe was raised?) in New England, so "Wicked" means more there than a lot of the rest of the world. Oh wait, there is a vampire who has appeared I think before, but certainly gets the most screen time in this volume. And she's pretty wicked

I thought it might be New Englandese, or it might be a reference to this: Wicked problem - Wikipedia

 

[Clint_L]

Polished off Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master, which I finally read cover to cover, the other day. While much of it I had already picked up from the podcasts/YouTube videos, it's overall a very solid, actionable book of advice, especially for DMs who might sometimes find themselves overwhelmed by work. It obviously favors DMs more comfortable with improv (late in the book, Mike mentions that Matt Mercer preps for three hours for every one hour of game time, which is wild), but even for folks who want more stuff prepped than Mike, it's a very good book. Highly recommended.

I love the Lazy Dungeon Master books!

Mercer's prep is impressive, but on the other hand, it's become a very lucrative job for him, whereas most of us are trying to squeeze it in after our actual jobs, not to mention families, etc. He should be doing extra prep.

He certainly does seem ready for almost anything, though. Dude's a professional.