Kudos to Thulsa!

[Malcadon]

I was reading the Grognardia gaming blog, and I found a review of The Spider-God's Bride. Being more focused on old-school games and their clones, he rarely reviews D20 books, but he is also a pulp and S&S fan. His review is largely positive and on the mark. His reviews of games and pulp fiction are honest, well-written and well-regarded by fans. That is some major brownie points man!

 

[Spectator]

Great Job Thulsa, its not easy to impress that bunch.

 

[thulsa]

Great Job Thulsa, its not easy to impress that bunch.

Thanks. I think that people who play the Conan RPG and thus like the sword & sorcery genre, have a lot in common with the "old schoolers". The writings of Robert E. Howard had a major influence on "zero-edition" and 1st Edition D&D. So I believe there is a lot of potential for cross-fertilization here, if we just acknowledge that people have different preferences when it comes to rulesets.

- thulsa

 

[Malcadon]

James Maliszewski (the guy that runs the Blog) is one of the most open-minded Grognards I know of. He is also been an experienced author and designer within the RPG industry - providing material for GURPS, World of Darkness, Gear Krieg, and a number of D20 books. I know all the above are new-school games, but it was his experience with these games that made him appreciate the classic games even more. His research into the history of D&D (and the Hobby as a whole), and his way of emoting his ideas on things is what draws the fans - he is quit insightful!

Although - from my understanding of him - he do not agree that S&S should be the outright default for D&D with the exclusion of all other styles, but he seems to agree that S&S is a vary important element to the diverse styles (including Sci-fi) that makes up classic D&D. His disfranchisement with modern rulesets (like how skills rolls tend to substitutes actual puzzle-solving and role-playing) parallels our own disfranchisement with LotR-styled High Fantasy (like how magic spells & items tend to substitutes actual puzzle-solving and role-playing). Both sides have their own tastes, but I also see a lot of potential for cross-fertilization (the best example of what I've seen of this is the Barbarians of Lemuria game).

His reviews into pulp - both in fiction and with authors - is also really good and insightful.