158 episodes
Appendix N Book Club Jeff Goad, Ngo Vinh-Hoi, and special guests
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- Leisure
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4.8 • 117 Ratings
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Jeff, Hoi, and a rotating roster of special guests discuss the adventure, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and weird fiction that inspires our gaming
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Episode 146 – Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s "A Canticle for Leibowitz” with our Patron Book Club
This episode is dedicated to Rick Byrne. Please consider sending a gift to support Leukemia research at UCSF: UCSF Foundation, PO Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145 or make a gift online at makeagift.ucsf.edu. Please be sure to note that the gift is in memory of Rick Byrne to support the Leukemia research of Dr. Neil Dunivan.
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Episode 145 – Michael Moorcock's "The Mad God's Amulet” with our Patron Book Club
Our Patron Book Club joins us to discuss Michael Moorcock's "The Mad God's Amulet, Michael Moorcock's love of arcane texts, action scenes, hyperviolence and gore, following expectations, whimsical supporting characters, battles over land and sea, reskinning monsters for science-fantasy, a device that can unlock any lock, the Devil's Rejects, our friend Rick Byrne, and much more!
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Episode 144 – Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô” with special guest Robert Poyton
Robert Poyton joins us to discuss Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô”, October horror films, the etymology of Hygaxian words, Howardian prose, varied treasures, the French "oh là là", the literary influences of Clark Ashton Smith, the diversity of intersecting cultures in North Africa, African nations, horse nomads, cult generators, unearthly treasure hoards, and much more!
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Episode 143 – Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell” with special guest Tim Mendees
Tim Mendees joins us to discuss Susanna Clarke's "Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell”, the dangers of massive hardbacks, literary rabbit holes, the Dorset dialect, cursing those who have wronged us, classist hypocrits, the couragousness that comes with conviction, interdimensional travel through reflective surfaces, interesting and flavorful spells, failing sanity rolls, faerie rewards, and much more!
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Episode 142 – Robert Asprin's "Thieves' World" with special guest Brian Yaksha
Brian Yaksha joins us to discuss Robert Asprin's "Thieves' World", the give and take of what you're going to give to the audience, fantasy shared worlds, Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar, Aragorn's tax plan, Machiavelli, passing off as older for added credibility, rotating GMs, bespoke stat blocks, power levels, player character points of entry, random tables, and much more!
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Episode 141 – Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars" with special guest Goran Gligovic
Goran Gligovic joins us to discuss Edgar Rice Burroughs's "A Princess of Mars", Asterix and Obelix, the Library of Wonder, Tarzan, being 30 for as long as you can remember, main characters as blank canvases, Robert E. Howard, the Fighting Man class in OD&D, when to embrace realism and when to eschew it, Frank Frazetta's action scenes, gargoyles taking a piss, a brightly dressed Elric, and much more!
Customer Reviews
A fun and entertaining show about the old school of RPGs
In the most ancient of days, Gary Gygax, an early co designer of Dungeosn and dragons, created a list of recommended reading that complimented and elucidated the game; it was included in the 1st edition dungeon Masters Guide. Many of the books are obscure or forgotten, but these fine folk have set out to obtain, read and critique each of the books tot he east of their abilities. They have excellent chemistry and engage well across many topics, pointing out the what works and what doesn’t, exploring the histories behind these works and their authors and publishers, and relate it well to more modern takes on classic D
Great show
Super fun and informative. Love it.
Not Sure Why It’s Worth My Time?
After giving the last three episodes a try, not sure why it is worth the time. As one guest put it, a bunch of books “with nothing to do with D & D”. It seems that I could better spend my time reading books and listening to discussions of content more akin to modern tastes. Why not do a modern take with the same premise? I gave it a whirl. It was just too TOXIC to deal with.