#and 2. a more expensive classic in hardcover. hoping i end up liking it...

[mihai-florescu]

It's crazy to me how popular buying erotica books is. Mostly because i still live in the parts of the internet where smut is free? More than free even. There are topgun or harry potter x reader fanfics blazed every other day on this website crossing my dash despite me really not seeking them out ever

[kickstarter-promotion]

Another Amazing Kickstarter (30th Anniversary Edition by ZiLa Games (K. David Ladage) —Kickstarter) has been published on https://crowdmonsters.com/new-kickstarters/30th-anniversary-edition-by-zila-games-k-david-ladage-kickstarter/

A NEW KICKSTARTER IS LAUNCHED:

Back in 1983, a company called Bard Games released some books: The Compleat Adventurer, The Compleat Alchemist, The Compleat Spellcaster. These three books would later be combined into an omnibus called The Arcanum.

The Arcanum, in addition to repeating an edited and cleaned up version of the three previous books, added an entire game engine to the mix. The two follow-up books (The Lexicon, and The Bestiary) became a trilogy allowing gamers to explore The World of Atlantis.

Arcanum Covers

 The Arcanum had three editions. Bard Games released the first two; the third was released by Death’s Edge Games. A new version of The Lexicon, combined with The Bestiary was released as well. Over time, this small press game was all but forgotten. The author, Stephan Michael Sechi, had moved on to write Talislanta. Then, after some more time, he left game writing to focus on his music career. He is truly a multi-talented man, and a fine human being.

I purchased the rights to all three editions of The Arcanum (text and artwork 1); another company (which also ran a Kickstarter campaign for the setting) purchased the rights to The Lexicon and The Bestiary well before I first spoke to Mr. Sechi. In other words, these two books are in very good hands.

30th Anniversary Edition logo

The Arcanum was far from a perfect book. It had some editing and typographical errors, some issues with formatting, and so on. In other words, it suffered the issues associated with a small group of enthusiasts trying to publish an RPG in the days before desktop publishing. I am working on the 30th Anniversary Edition 2 of this book; my goal is to make this the end-all, be-all of The Arcanum Role-Playing System. I am cleaning up the text, re-arranging items; breaking up the book into true chapters, and creating a cohesive flow making the rules easy to follow.

What I am not doing is substantially altering any aspect of the game 3.

Some things are quirky. This is not a flaw, or an error — it is a matter of style. To do this, I have to strive for two secondary goals:

This edition is setting free. The game will have reference to some things (certain classifications of higher and lower powers, types of undead, and so on). But no established setting is to be assumed. The Atlantean Setting is the property of Khepera Publishing. I have spoken with Jerry D. Greyson (great guy, by the way) — he and I have a gentleman’s agreement. Where the information in The Arcanum makes reference to The Atlantean Setting, I am free to deal with that as I wish. Anything strictly within the pages of The Lexicon and The Bestiary is off limits. This is a very fair arrangement.

I will have to develop a standard system for creatures. Since the animals, beasts, monsters, and other creatures are all described within the pages of The Bestiary, I will have to take every creature that has information or has references to it made within The Arcanum and flesh them out in some way. This adds a chapter (Bestiary) within The Arcanum that was not there before. Without this section, the RPG is sorely lacking as a stand-along system.

The money is needed to handle normal publishing expenses (e.g., ISBN, printing). To keep costs low (and to maintain the feel of the game), just about every piece of artwork from the original three editions of the game will be used (after all, I already own them). The rest is being donated (Whoot!).

My name is K. David Ladage. I am the founder of ZiLa Games — and this role-playing system is my flagship project. As a freelance writer, I have written for Steve Jackson Games, Sword and Sorcery Studios, and others. I am a tinker of games and a natural game designer (meaning that I love coming up with games, and when I play games I begin looking at how I would have done things almost immediately). I have high hopes for ZiLa Games. I have a lot of ideas and notes that need an outlet.

The book is done (save a few pieces of art, and editing). So… very little is left to do.

Yes and no. I ran a Kickstarter campaign some time ago for this book. I asked for far too little and it succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. Then things went south. I had two artists filch me out of a couple thousand dollars. I let my eyes get too wide and started envisioning things far outside the scope of the project — that I laid out money for. Then all things went to hell as the scope of the project’s text started to get violated. Weeks turned into months. Months into a year and more.

I realized I needed to make my backers whole again . So I took out a small loan and used my income tax refund to refund every dollar that had been donated to that last attempt. Then, outside of a pressure caused by my desire to get a product out for 90+ backers, I started working on the material when I could. It is now done.

Some editing remains. Some artwork needs to be put in. But it is fundamentally done. All it needs now is you: pledge and help make a dream come true.

The higher level pledges get custom dice and a custom dice bag. Below are pictures of what they will receive. These are not available as add ons. Supplies are limited.

Dice Bag (outside) and custom dice

  Dice bag (inside) and custom dice

The Paladin level includes a one-of-a-kind dice tower. This is what it looks like (dice are shown for scale).

Dice Tower: Lower Front

  Dice Tower: Back

  Dice Tower: Two Parts

  Dice Tower: Upper Front

  Stretch Goals

$10,000 — The dice and the dice bag will become an add-on items. You can order them, order additional sets, etc.

$15,000 —  The hardcover edition will become a numbered, limited edition item where no more than 500 will ever be printed in that format. The Paladin-level donor will get book #001 of 500.

$20,000 — The limited edition hardcover will get the number in gold on the cover as opposed to the inside of the book.

$25,000 — A Game Master’s Screen will be produced and made available as an add-on item.

$30,000 — I cannot imagine this campaign reaching this level… but if it does, I will add more stretch goals. Right after I change my pants. 🙂

$15 — Additional PDF (only available to Gladiator and above)

$30 — Additional soft cover (only available to Sorcerer and above)

$60 — Additional hard cover (only available to Assassin and above)

1 — I own the rights to all of the text and artwork for all three editions of The Arcanum. However, one exceptions was made: one of the races in the book became a major part of Talislanta — Mr. Sechi maintains the rights to that one element of the game.

2 — The original material was published in the mid 1980s. The combined book (the actual Arcanum releases) came shortly after. Thus, the 30th Anniversary of this RPG classic.

3 — The bestiary is the only major change to the system.

Risks and challenges

The rights are secured. ZiLa Games owns the text and art — so this is already taken care of.

The book writing and layout are complete. I have the dice (Chessex) and the dice bags (Custom Dice Bags). I have the dice tower (Unique Dice Towers). I have an artist who is donating his time and effort for the last few remaining spots where artwork is needed. The biggest hurdle will be in the editing. I am estimating how long that will take. If it runs over, I will let you know.

I am hoping to get it printed by a local printer in Cedar Rapids, IA — CEDAR GRAPHICS. If all else fails, I can do the printing through Lulu or CreateSpace.

Learn about accountability on Kickstarter

INFORMATION PROVIDED BY Kickstarter.com and Kicktraq.com VISIT PAGE SOURCE

[winedarkwords]

Rating: 5/5 stars

THIS BOOK WAS SO GOOD!! I’ve been watching this book for years out of the corner of my eye, waiting for a paperback copy (because let’s be real, hardcover versions might be pretty but they are an expensive pain in the ass to carry around), and the wait was so worth it. For those of you who are into the YA scene I would call this reminiscent of Six of Crows, and for those more inclined towards the classics By Gaslight has an excellent blend of the Dickensian coming-of-age novel meshed with the dark, anti-hero vibe of Stevenson. And if you aren’t into either of those I hope you know what I mean when I say it came across as a lighter episode in Showtime’s Penny Dreadful.

I’m giving this book 5 stars not because it was absolutely perfect but because what wasn’t was overshadowed by how much I enjoyed the book as a whole. I haven’t been invested in a book like how I was with this one in a looooong time. It even had me pulling near all-nighters AND waking up early (and I love my sleep ok) and here’s why:

#1. The atmosphere of the book is phenomenal. From what I’ve seen in this book Price has a gift for building an atmosphere that effortlessly sinks into the reader. There’s no major info dumping or artsy fartsy purple descriptions that sure are beautiful, but can leave the reader bored and grasping for the point. I’m not big on poetry but the lyrical way the grimy streets of London or the desperation of the war back in Virginia crept up on me felt real and effortless and spoke of the author’s background as a poet.

#2. By Gaslight is driven by the characters rather than the plot (which is a huge part of what really attracted me to it and could be a problem if you’re more of a plot-based go-go-go reader). As opposed to sliding into 1 dimensional stereotypes of jilted thieves and bleak detectives Price’s characters grew from these templates into unique individuals that immediately captured my attention. Of course there’s plot underneath it all, but the characters and their relationships with one another are what push it forward. their dialogue was clever, each had a tone of voice that separated them from the other and I wanted to know more, and more about them.

#3. The atmosphere worked hand-in-hand with the historical context of the novel in a way that made it feel real, without coming across as a stuffy textbook (hallelujah!). So often when I read historical fiction it’s either inaccurate or boring due to the fact that author is so concerned with being historically correct that the reader is weighed down with random dumps of lingo and facts that draw away from the voice and plot of the book. There was none of that with this book. Steven Price is excellent at the art of “show” rather than “tell” (same diatribe English teachers have been spouting since the kindergarten) and I was hooked from the first page. Due to the feeling of the novel and the characters, the events that took place in the novel felt real and I never questioned the where, why, or how of those events.

My only drawbacks were that I felt some of the time skips slightly jumpy and I wanted to know more about Molly, and Fludd, I wanted to know more about Foole’s past, I wanted more of Rose’s creepy seance ghosts…the list goes on. But I think a lot of that feeling of needing to know more stems from the fact that I’m so used to single novels growing into duologies, trilogies, series, etc. In the end I just have to deal with the fact that it’s over :’(

In the end this book won’t be for everyone (everyone has different tastes blah, blah, blah) but if your reading tastes are similar to mine, and this review pushes you to read this book and you end up loving it then I’m glad I could do my civic duty.

[studentsofshield]

Monday Recs for February 14, 2017 - Captain Marvel/Ms. Marvel aka Carol Danvers

More Details:

Controversial opinion time. Your trusty creator of these reading lists and supplemental guides, Vincent, thinks that Carol has yet to have a definitive run.

That said, she’s had plenty of great stories over the years. I will shortly delve into her publication history to present my reasoning for the above spit take.

Carol started her career as a supporting character in legacy predecessor Captain Marvel Mar-Vell’s title. Her role is minimal compared to what one would expect given her recent ascent to his former alias. Outside of the origin of her powers, fans of hers can skip that entire chunk of history.

She finally got her first ongoing series in 1977. At the time, Marvel was pushing an initiative to try and attract a female audience. Titles such as Night Nurse, Shanna the She-Devil, and Claws of the Cat were launched in addition to Ms. Marvel. Sadly only Carol would last past several issues. Poor marketing is probably to blame, and maybe the fact that most of the series’ premises were basically male sexual fantasy tropes.

To match the initiative and politics of the time, Ms. Marvel was an explicitly feminist comic. Some critics and fans of Carol around the KSD era may look back and laugh at the ��Ms.” moniker, but it was a direct reference to the leading feminist magazine Ms. Which was founded by Gloira Steinem, herself a comics fan who played a major role in returning Wonder Woman to her superhero alias and out of the mod Diana Prince era.

Within the book, Carol fights for equal pay for equal work and other causes. Some of it doesn’t hold up as well due to the fact that these were middle aged men trying to write a feminist activist. Chris Claremont wrote much of the series, and many of her following adventures. The art team was inconsistent and never truly shone until some late issues by Dave Cockrum, who would rejoin with Claremont and craft another Carol classic.

Following the cancellation of her first series with its 23rd issue, Carol moved into a constant supporting role in the Avengers. She rose from guest star to member of the team for a long span of issues, most of which are listed together on the list for a nice chunk.

Carol’s darkest hour is an incredibly disastrous story told in Avengers 200. Chris Claremont then tried his best to redeem her in the 10th annual of that same title. Carol A. Strickland wrote the famous “The Rape of Ms. Marvel” essay in response. Carol fans can either completely ignore this mess or go in with warning and dissect it for historical curiosity.

Claremont continued as Carol’s primary architect when he brought her over to his super hot selling Uncanny X-Men. She was a focal point of the Brood Saga where she underwent her transformation into the alias Binary. At the conclusion, she joined the Starjammers team of space pirates and was relegated to an occasional supporting character in X-Men books for nearly a decade. Carol missed out on having her own major stories in the early/mid-1990s, probably for the better.

Kurt Busiek then clearly had an attachment to the character’s pre-Binary days. She returned to her Ms. Marvel era appearance and started going by the name Warbird. Busiek used her in his Avengers run with George Perez and his Heroes Return Iron Man relaunch with Sean Chen. The latter series featured some hidden gem moments that developed an “untapped potential” for Carol and paralleled her own self esteem and alcohol issues with Tony Stark’s.

The alternate reality event House of M is a crucial turning point in Carol’s life as a cape. In this reality, she is one of the most prominent, powerful, and respected heroes in the world. As the House of M was averted, she remembered her status in that world.

Brian Reed then wrote a 50 issue series (her longest lasting to date) with that House of M seed as its premise. Carol would strive toward fulfilling that prophecy and becoming the best of the best. For better or worse, what this boiled down to was Carol dealing with all of her baggage and ties to her title. Reed can be commended for naturally weaving his series through the impact of linewide events like Civil War, Secret Invasion, and the Dark Reign. Secret Invasion involves a fake-out (spoilers) return of her once-mentor Mar-Vell, which spins off into an accompanying miniseries also by Reed. The Thunderbolt Moonstone aka Karla Sofen temporarily takes over the book during Dark Reign, eventually leading to Carol fighting for her rightful place.

Reed’s run is probably the closest that Carol has gotten to being a must-read, fully fleshed out superhero. However, it has a legion of problems. Reed is unfortunately just not a top tier comics scripter. Outside of this run, he was mostly used at Marvel as a fill-in batter on event tie-in miniseries. Which may explain how he expertly handled them in his series, but shows Marvel’s warranted lack of confidence in him. The repetitive plotlines of Carol dealing with a challenger to her title get tired. The art is also wildly inconsistent on this book. It’s clear that Marvel was beginning to think they wanted Carol as a top tier hero in their stable, but were not yet ready to fully put their money where their mouth was.

Readers who trudge through Reed’s run will be rewarded by some slow burn character development.

Then one gets to the reign of Kelly Sue DeConnick on Carol Danvers. Which kicks off with a monumental change to the character. She was going to move beyond her Ms. Marvel costume and identity (which would soon be bestowed upon the charming Kamala Khan) and take the title of Captain Marvel. This was marketed as a feminist evolution in the revision of her design and the discarding of the divisive “Ms.” title.

KSD’s run started off incredibly strong with Dexter Soy on art. Carol’s past as a military woman and pilot was brought to the forefront. She also continued to be tied to the Avengers. KSD’s enthusiastic marketing of her book and fan interaction on social media exploded Captain Marvel’s fanbase. This new community would come to be known as the Carol Corps.

However, KSD’s run suffered a few issues just like Brian Reed’s. Carol was jumbled up with the Guardians of the Galaxy for some reason. KSD was trying to expand on her cosmic connections, but the execution left a lot to be desired. Carol was not a good fit for the Guardians and Brian Michael Bendis’ take on that respective title with distracting guest team members pulled her down. A completely unnecessary renumbering also derailed much of momentum that KSD had built. Fans began making fun of the tail end of the run, which seemed to disproportionately focus on Carol’s cat. This run (or two runs?) also suffered from similar artistic inconsistency as Reed’s.

DeConnick left for the pastures of creator-owned work at Image Comics, joining husband and fellow former Marvel scribe Matt Fraction. Marvel wanted to capitalize on Carol’s increased stature though. Which to them meant bringing writers from outside of comics in to take a shot at Carol’s adventures. Either due to the writers’ other commitments, poor sales, or disagreements with editorial, nobody stuck around very long. Which resulted in more confusing renumbering.

Which leads to the controversial Civil War II. A movie loosely based on the first Civil War event was out in theaters and modern Marvel wanted to try and reflect that in their books. A complete repeat would be lazy, so they altered the divisions and ideology just a bit. Instead of Iron Man vs Captain America, this time it would be Iron Man vs Captain Marvel.

Except that Carol found herself stuck on the wrong side. Her ideology in the conflict made absolutely zero sense logically and ethically. The story also proved as such after a while. Tie-in issues and her own title also constantly contradicted her actions in the main event. Within months, Marvel fans quickly saw Carol as the “villain” of this tired hero vs hero storyline.

A soiled reputation that has followed her since, with more obscure writers and renumberings grinding away at the legacy that Chris Claremont, Kurt Busiek, Brian Reed, and Kelly Sue DeConnick had built for her.

Which is why I say she has yet to have her great character defining run yet.

Collection Information:

Carol Danvers will be starring in a multi-million dollar blockbuster film soon, played by the utterly perfect Brie Larson. So I hope and expect that some of the following information will be outdated and in need of revision as that release gets closer. If you are reading this in the future and I have not come back to this, please reach out to me.

Her original series is currently only available in print in the expensive Marvel Masterworks line of hardcovers. Maybe Marvel will decide to put out one thick epic collection or an omnibus to grab it all together affordably. -Volume 1 (Ms. Marvel Vol 1 1-14) -Volume 2 (15-23, Avengers 200, Annual 10)

The Brood Saga has never been adequately collected in a standalone manner. If you want to get it, check out the third Uncanny X-Men omnibus. 

Likewise in costly acquisitions, the Iron Man guest appearances by Busiek can be found in an omnibus dedicated to that run. His Avengers run has been collected in two omnibuses, five paperback/oversized hardcovers, or several old small paperbacks. 

Brian Reed’s run is collected across way too many paperbacks (most of them with premiere hardcover editions). Some of them are sadly hard to find and expensive due to their age and Carol’s increased profile. I have listed the titles and contents below, but not bothered linking them.  -Ms. Marvel: Best of the Best (Ms. Marvel Vol 2 1-5, Giant-Size) -Civil War (6-10) -Operation Lightning Storm (11-17) -Monster Smash (18-24) -Secret Invasion (25-30) -Ascension (31-34, Annual 1) -Dark Reign (35-41) -War of the Marvels (42-46) -Best You Can Be (47-50)

Unlike Claremont and Reed’s, Kelly Sue DeConnick’s run has gotten a line of handy and affordable thick paperbacks. They’re basically part of Marvel’s “complete collection” line of reprints in everything but name. There are also older, smaller trades collecting all of the same material, but these are easier and readily available. -Captain Marvel: Earth’s Mightiest Hero Volume 1 (Captain Marvel Vol 7 1-12) -Volume 2 (12-17, Avengers Assemble 16-19, Avenging Spider-Man 9-10) -Volume 3 (Captain Marvel Vol 8 1-11) -Volume 4 (12-15, Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps 1-4)