Unwinnable

While browsing one of the less-picked-through used bookstores in the city, I found myself holding a beautiful little travel book. The words stamped in fading gold letters upon the front read: DuLac’s Pocket Journal of a Tour of the World; With Special Attention Paid to Remote and Hard-to-Find Locales. The tome was written by C. E. DuLac and published in 1976 by G.G. Press. It was a smallish hardcover, just bigger than the palm of my hand; it had a worn red cover, cloth binding, gilded page ends and a deep red, silk bookmark sewn into the binding.

The book contained short travel entries compiled by Mr. DuLac – who is indeed quite the traveler, which is evidenced by the hundreds of entries in the pocket book. While thumbing through, I found a peculiar listing. It sat just above an informative section about Boston, Massachusetts. Faithfully replicated here, it read as follows: (more…)

There’s a scene in the role-playing documentary The Dungeon Masters where one of the subjects, Scott, is sorting and arranging his hundreds of dice. As Scott’s doing this, he’s talking about how the dice need to be touched so that they’ll gain some of your personal vibrations and roll well; then he starts to talk about the die that roll poorly. Those die are separated from the rest, dipped in water and put in the freezer. Once the offending die is frozen, all of the other dice are lined up and the frozen die is placed in the middle so the other die can “see” it. Scott then smashes the frozen die with a hammer as a lesson to the rest of his dice. “This is what happens when you roll poorly!” he shouts at the rows of unshattered dice. (more…)

Long in advance of the whole Before Watchmen kerfuffle, I had the opportunity to interview Alan Moore for the local Brooklyn literary journal, Slice Magazine. (more…)

In a world where geek culture is becoming ever more pervasive, where videogames sell millions of copies and comic books are adapted into blockbuster movies, there still remains one hobby that rides along the edges. There is still one hobby that is shunned by the mainstream. Join me now as we explore the world of tabletop role-playing games. Join me, the TABLETOP WIZARD! (more…)

In a world where geek culture is becoming ever more pervasive, where videogames sell millions of copies and comic books are adapted into blockbuster movies, there still remains one hobby that rides along the edges. There is still one hobby that is shunned by the mainstream. Join me now as we explore the world of tabletop role-playing games. Join me, the TABLETOP WIZARD! (more…)

In a world where geek culture is becoming ever more pervasive, where videogames sell millions of copies and comic books are adapted into blockbuster movies, there still remains one hobby that rides along the edges. There is still one hobby that is shunned by the mainstream. Join me now as we explore the world of tabletop role-playing games. Join me, the TABLETOP WIZARD! (more…)

In a world where geek culture is becoming ever more pervasive, where videogames sell millions of copies and comic books are adapted into blockbuster movies, there still remains one hobby that rides along the edges. There is still one hobby that is shunned by the mainstream. Join me now as we explore the world of tabletop role-playing games. Join me, the TABLETOP WIZARD! (more…)