4e, Reviews, and Fairy Tales

[alanajoli]

So for the last two days I've been watching the community told_tales, a list about fairy tales. It looks like a great community that just posts way too often for me to keep up with. I may pop back by from time to time, but I have enough trouble keeping up with all the author blogs I read! I've already added the wonderful Mythopoeic Society mailing list to my daily reading, and I think I may be at a reading limit for a bit.

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For folks who have been talking about 4e, Keith Baker wrote in an excellent recent blog post "Is there any compelling reason to rush to switch your game to 4E... or to ever run a 4E Eberron campaign? Your mileage may vary. I'm not going to say 4E is going to be all games to all people. But the fact of the matter is that I not only prefer it as a system, I feel that it's a BETTER system for the Eberron setting than 3E - that in plays to things that I consider fundamental themes of the Eberron Campaign Setting."

As far as I'm aware, Keith hasn't been involved in the development of 4e directly (though of course he's involved in converting Eberron), so I think it's a nice vote of confidence to see this coming from him. I also like that he acknowledges 4e may not be the be all, end all--which leaves some great room for individual taste (as, I believe, all games should).

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Matt from flamesrising just posted my recent review of Happy Hour of the Damned by Mark Henry mdhenry. Now that the new flamesrising site is up, Matt has been posting several of the reviews I wrote this winter, and it's nice to see them up there. He's overwhelmingly sent me books that I liked, and I'm grateful for that. :)

Comments

[matt-m-mcelroy.livejournal.com]

Let me know when you want more books, I have many...

Oh, if you get the chance, I need a photo for your Bio. I'm still playing around with that page, so that isn't the final version.

Unrelated Comments

[militiajim.livejournal.com]

The Valley was interesting. Washed out and dark, vaguely like a bleached Sin City. I like.

Keith's comments on D&D 4 are interesting. It looks like it's trying to pick up what Spycraft already has.

Re: Unrelated Comments

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it. :)

According to the developers we talked to, they played a crap ton of games as part of the development process (board game and video game, as well as RPG), so I suspect they included SpyCraft in the mix. Max also noticed some similarities when we were playing.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I'd love a new pile. I still have one from the most recent (something about a vampire hunter in high school and a dance?) that I've been meaning to get to, as well as just a bunch I've been meaning to write on ones I've read on my own. What are the odds of getting a review index back on the site? That was a completely useful tool to me. ;)

Will e-mail you a photo.

[matt-m-mcelroy.livejournal.com]

I'll get some new books out to you this weekend.

I'm working on a sticky-post with a master list of the reviews.

I'm also thinking of mini lists on the contributor bios linking to the work you folks have contributed to the site.