City of Bones by Martha Wells, and the evolution of character archetypes

Posted on by Henry

I am such a sucker for this art style.

It’s odd, reflecting on the ways in which an author I love has grown (and stayed the same) over the years.

I’m specifically thinking about Martha Wells. I recently read City of Bones, which was originally published in 1995. I’m in the middle of reviewing City of Bones, because it’s being rereleased this year in trade paperback by Tor. I’ll have my review of that up on GeeklyInc in the not-too-distant future.

City of Bones is intrigue, archaeology, lost civilizations and past apocalypses. It’s a thriller, a mystery, it’s got political machinations and murder… you know, the good stuff. What stood out to me though, was…

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Why play Diablo when you could play the Hammerwatch 2 demo?

Posted on by Henry

I’m shocked I haven’t raved about Heroes of Hammerwatch (HoH) on this blog before now. I thought I had. Sorry CrackShell, you deserved enthusiastic praise for your previous work. Apparently I only shared that with some friends.

Hammerwatch 2 is the high quality lo-fi alternative to Diablo 4 coming out August 15th, and there’s a free demo on Steam right now. I’ve been having a blast playing that demo: if you want a dungeon-delving ARPG hack-and-slash, try this. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than $70.

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Unbalanced games

Posted on by Henry

Here’s a hot take I’ve flirted with before: unbalanced games are more fun than balanced ones.

I think it has to do with gaming a system, beyond even outplaying an opponent.

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Suffering, Acceptance, & Play

Posted on by Henry

What the hell is going on when playing feels like suffering?

Being bad at a game often feels bad to me. That’s most true when I think I *should* be competent, or when I’m playing with my close peers, people I feel competitive with. Being bad at a game feels terrible when I’m emotionally attached to a specific outcome, especially if I think I’m failing my team.

But this suffering is worse in some games.

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The Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèli Clark (2018)

Posted on by Henry

The Black God’s Drums is a sprint. It’s a sprint full of flavor, a window into another world that feels overflowing and wild and vibrant—a fantastical reimagining of our own world’s history, bringing us to a “might have been” that feels true and honest and exciting, with plenty of our own world’s horror worked in. It’s quick, here and gone again, and a greater pleasure for it.

Thinking about a recent conversation with a fellow book-nerd friend, I have to warn you:

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Hobgoblin (from Mike Hutchinson)

Posted on by Henry

Yesterday I played my first match of Hobgoblin. It was a delight, and an epiphany.

I’ve wanted something like this for years. I was in middle school when I got a copy of the core rulebook for Warhammer Fantasy. I read through that book cover to cover, and then I read it again. I bought a faction’s army book (for the Skaven) with all their special rules and abilities, and read through that over and over too. I bought my first box of models. I yearned to play.

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Banality and slow-burn horror

Posted on by Henry

What if horror games are actually driven by banality? Is Call of Cthulhu best when it’s mostly full of the everyday?

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Losers (Netflix 2019)

Posted on by Henry

Another snippet, like last week.

Losers might be the wrong title for this series. But I think that’s the point, and I think it’s a point worth making. Where sports narratives often feel caricatured or inevitable, this feels more human. It’s good.

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Ghosts, a tiny post

Posted on by Henry

This is just a brief one, but…

I’ve been reading A Lesson in Vengeance, been part way through it for a while. The combination of that book, plus my own meditations, has left me musing on the nature of ghosts and how they work in stories. I don’t think I’m saying anything revolutionary when I say that, while ghosts are often said to have unfinished business, they can also be interpreted as the unfinished business of those they haunt.

Ghosts make a neat device for unwelcome and intrusive thoughts.

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Worldbuilding: leave room for later

Posted on by Henry

Leave yourself room for later. If there’s anything I’ve learned from doing lots of worldbuilding—for my own linear fiction and for the collaborative fiction of RPGs—it’s that trying to fill every last nook and cranny of a setting is a daunting task. And actually filling up everything is choking, stifling. Don’t fill up everything. It leaves no room for the future, and it leaves no room for anyone else.

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