When I say “horror roleplaying games”, I’m not talking about video games like Silent Hill or Resident Evil. I’m from an older generation, a generation that grew up on Dungeons and Dragons. So when I start talking about horror roleplaying games, then you know that I’m talking about the granddaddy of horror rpgs, Call of Cthulhu, and all of the dozens of other games that were inspired directly or indirectly by Call of Cthulhu’s success...
Archive for February, 2009
Horror Roleplaying Games
Thursday, February 26th, 2009Jack by China Mieville – From The New Weird
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009In yesterday’s post about “the New Weird”, I probably made it pretty clear that I’m not sure what exactly this appellation means. But I did find time to read one of the story’s from the anthology The New Weird yesterday. The short story was called “Jack”, and it was written by China Mieville. I’ve not read anything by China Mieville before, so I didn’t know what to expect. After reading this story, I’m not sure what to expect from China Mieville’s writing in the future either. I really enjoyed the story. The “Jack” of the title is “Jack Half-A-Prayer”, and I’m not sure if he’s a character only used in this short story, or if he’s part of a larger milieu...
The New Weird
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009“The New Weird” is a literary genre that started in the 1990’s. Some people consider it a sub-genre of horror fiction or dark fantasy fiction. Like most literary genres, “the New Weird” is a label that was applied to a literary genre after the fact. At the store, we carry an anthology that defines the genre, and it’s titled, appropriately enough, The New Weird. The book was edited by Ann & Jeff Vandermeer...