Library Obscura
Apr. 6th, 2010 03:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jack_babalonLooking for a taste of the bizarre to spice up your bedtime reading or really want to draw some raised eyebrows on that long train commute to work? Well look no further than the Weird Book Room. There's something for everyone here - whether you're an amateur mole-trapper, wish to improve your bowling game through hypnosis or are simply an enthusiast of the fine art of cheese rolling.
Titles include:
However there is one tome of literary greatness that has escaped the prodigious collection of the Weird Book Room. A masterpiece of Depression era American Literature rivaled only by Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath or Fante's Ask the Dust:
Did you know that Gary Gygax's original idea for the role playing game was based on this book? Apparently he wrote a set of supplemental rules for the Chainmail miniature game in which medieval warfare campaigns could be waged with competing armies of bindlestick wielding transients and world weary prostitutes. Though well received initially it was suggested by fellow game designers that perhaps something involving dragons and, if possible, dungeons would be a tad bit more marketable. To this day the Hobo character trope remains under a different title - 'Bard' while, as any experienced RPGer will tell you, the 'Harlot' can be found in the original Monster Manual.
Finally, of course, is the inevitable book plug for myself (in an act of shameless self promotion that would make even Stan Lee blush):
Which, as most you no doubt know by now, is about luchadores, clowns, ghouls and a haunted brothel. I must confess to living in the vain hope that someday my humble intellectual property will be turned into a RPG (or failing that a MMORPG). On sale here.
Titles include:
However there is one tome of literary greatness that has escaped the prodigious collection of the Weird Book Room. A masterpiece of Depression era American Literature rivaled only by Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath or Fante's Ask the Dust:
Did you know that Gary Gygax's original idea for the role playing game was based on this book? Apparently he wrote a set of supplemental rules for the Chainmail miniature game in which medieval warfare campaigns could be waged with competing armies of bindlestick wielding transients and world weary prostitutes. Though well received initially it was suggested by fellow game designers that perhaps something involving dragons and, if possible, dungeons would be a tad bit more marketable. To this day the Hobo character trope remains under a different title - 'Bard' while, as any experienced RPGer will tell you, the 'Harlot' can be found in the original Monster Manual.
Finally, of course, is the inevitable book plug for myself (in an act of shameless self promotion that would make even Stan Lee blush):
Which, as most you no doubt know by now, is about luchadores, clowns, ghouls and a haunted brothel. I must confess to living in the vain hope that someday my humble intellectual property will be turned into a RPG (or failing that a MMORPG). On sale here.
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on 2010-04-06 08:23 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-04-06 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-04-06 08:45 pm (UTC)p.s. I feel pollenated too.
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on 2010-04-06 10:31 pm (UTC)Yep, nothing like being sinus raped by wanton trees (pretty as they are here in a Georgia spring).
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on 2010-04-06 08:51 pm (UTC)This, as they say in the Lutheran Church, is most certainly true.
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on 2010-04-06 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-04-08 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-04-08 04:20 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-04-08 09:07 pm (UTC)I was talkin to destructo Nick who I know by other names in-game; he sends his congratulations also!
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on 2010-04-08 09:17 pm (UTC)Do you mean Nick who used to work at 688? I haven't heard from him in ages.