Saturday, October 1, 2011

What Blogs Am I Missing?

I added a few yesterday, but I haven't updated the blog list for quite some time.

What I'm looking for (any one of these will qualify a blog, doesn't need to be all of them!):

Pre 1985 D&D
The OSR Games (OSRIC, LL, S&W, LotFP, etc)
15th-17th century historical focus
Weird Tales stuff (pre 1950s stuff)
Old and/or Obscure Horror (art/movie/story)

What I'm not looking for:

2e+ D&D
White Wolf
Actual Play reports

So what blogs should I check out and hopefully add to the blog roll?

45 comments:

  1. Well...

    The content varies from week to week, but I think two of my blogs might fit your interests:

    Terror Titans: A blog focused on horror movie reviews, with side-treks into horror art every so often. I tend toward the obscure, although not necessarily old.

    Shades of Gray: Scatter-shot blog with the unifying theme that it's mostly in black-and-white. I quite frequently review horror movies and horror graphic novels.

    Classic Movie Monsters might also be a blog you would find interesting. A new still or photo of some sort is posted there almost every day.

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  2. I'm light on content lately, since I haven't played or run anything in months, but you could check out my OSRish blog, Dungeonskull Mountain:

    http://dungeonskull.blogspot.com

    Top games discussed are Labyrinth Lord and B/X, the old-school British game Dragon Warriors, old editions of WFRP, etc.

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  3. I keep a spreadsheet of blogs focusing on horror movies, literature, and the OSR. Currently, I have around 230 or so. You can find it on my blog (www.digitalorc.blogspot.com) and by clicking on the "Blogs" tab at the top.

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  4. I've been a little hit or miss lately, but I try to focus on old D&D or whatever geek stuff strikes my fancy at Back to the Keep.

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  5. My blog about my own Imperial Chinese-themed frp (http://celestialempire.blogspot.com/) has a larger time-span than 15th-17th century but lately at least half of the posts have targeted that particular period of time.

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  6. My pal Kate had a great obscure horror/exploitation film blog: http://tenebrouskate.blogspot.com/

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  7. My blog would fall under OSR Games (S&W).

    grognardling.blogspot.com

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  8. When I scanned down your list of "Other Stuffies to Read", I didn't see...

    The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms

    http://9and30kingdoms.blogspot.com/

    Talysman posts stuff that's at least as clever, innovative & interesting as the stuff that Zak S does -- and at least as frequently as Zak S does, too -- but without the arrogance & petty acrimony.

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  9. @Ed Given how closely Zak and Mr. Raggi obviously work (Vornheim etc) it seems a bit silly to trash Zak while giving advice...

    +1 on rec for Grognardling. It's a nice blog.

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  10. @Ed: Thanks for the good words, but yeah, dissing Zak is maybe going too far. Besides, I'm probably at least as arrogant as Zak, if not more so; I just think that's something about me I should change, so I try to keep my tone neutral.

    Anyways, the point is moot, since I'm already on Jim's blogroll. LotFP has been one of the major traffic sources for visitors to my blog for at least a year now.

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  11. @Brendan

    I understand what you mean, but...

    1) Because Raggi has worked so closely with Zak, I'm sure he knows my characterization of Zak's blog is true.

    2) Raggi seems to me like the sort of person who respects the truth & those who tell it even when it's not convenient.

    3) I don't consider what I said about Zak's blog to be trashing Zak. It's just a completely accurate description of his blog: clever, innovative & interesting with arrogance & petty acrimony.

    4) The most completely accurate description of Talysman's blog that I can think of is 'like Zak's blog, but without the arrogance & petty acrimony'.

    5) A recommendation with a completely accurate description is more useful than one with an incomplete description. And I wanted my recommendation to be as useful as I could make it.

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  12. @Talysman

    You're welcome. I just said what I think is true.

    I respect your opinion, but, like I explained to Brendan above, I don't consider what I said about Zak's blog to be dissing Zak. It's just a completely accurate description of his blog. That's all.

    I would never have guessed that you're even the slightest bit arrogant at all. You suppress that very well. And the fact that you know you're arrogant, and admit it, and want to change that, and actually try to do something about it is what separates you from unnamed people who don't.

    I'm glad you're already on Raggi's blogroll. I must've missed you when scanning down through it.

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  13. One man's arrogance is another man's sassyness.

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  14. "One man's arrogance is another man's sassyness."

    Only if at least one of those men don't know what at least one of those words means.

    ar•ro•gance [ar-uh-guh'ns]
    noun
    offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.
    Also, ar•ro•gan•cy.
    Origin:

    1275–1325; Middle English < Middle French < Latin arrogantia presumption. See arrogant, -ance
    Related forms
    non•ar•ro•gance, noun
    non•ar•ro•gan•cy, noun
    su•per•ar•ro•gance, noun
    Synonyms

    haughtiness, disdain.
    Antonyms
    humility, modesty, diffidence.

    sas•sy [sas-ee]
    adjective, sas•si•er, sas•si•est. Informal.
    1. impertinent; insolent; saucy: a sassy reply; a sassy teen.
    2. pert; boldly smart; saucy: a sassy red handbag.
    Origin:
    1830–1835, Americanism; alteration of saucy
    Related forms
    sas•si•ness, noun
    sas•si•ly, adverb


    Because I know what both of those words mean, I know that I enjoy Zak's sassiness, but not his arrogance & petty acrimony. In fact, because Zak's sassiness is what makes his blog so fun, when I described Talysman's blog, I should've described it as 'like Zak's blog, but without the sassiness, arrogance & petty acrimony'.

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  15. I agree w/ all of you and consider his sassy arrogance to be an attractive attribute of the blog written by the genius known as Zak.
    But, I'd just like to point out that one can probably assume James is at least a bit familiar w/ Zak's blog...just sayin'.

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  16. "...one can probably assume James is at least a bit familiar w/ Zak's blog..."

    And that reasonably assumed familiarity is exactly why I used it as a reference to describe Talysman's blog.

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  17. What? Zak? Who?

    (sorry, have a small break while everyone makes new characters over here... TPK... my Ref rating just dinged. :D)

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  18. "What? Zak? Who?

    There's this guy named "Zak". He's a genius. And he's really funny, too. But he also, sometimes, says things that sound like he's "making claims or pretensions to superior importance or rights; overbearingly assuming; insolently proud". And he even, sometimes, says things with a "sharpness, harshness, or bitterness of nature, speech, disposition" that seem to be "showing or caused by meanness of spirit". But, despite those common human faults, his genius & humor make his blog well worth reading.

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  19. I can't tell if that's arrogant or sassy, Jeff.

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  20. @Jeff Rients

    Is it possible to look up words in the OED online for free? And, if so, how? I haven't been able to find a way.

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  21. "I can't tell if that's arrogant or sassy..."

    It's both.

    It's arrogant to command anyone to either use your favored dictionary or go away.

    But the way Jeff said it was sassy.

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  22. Ok:

    Everyone sitting here reading this thread thinking

    "This guy Ed is a cunt"

    is just SOP.

    Me actually typing

    "This guy Ed is a cunt"

    is apparently arrogance.

    Whatevs, little troll.

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  23. Ed: My local public library maintains a subscription available to all patrons.

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  24. "This guy Ed is a cunt"

    The above is an example of petty acrimony.


    "Whatevs, little troll."

    The above is an example of arrogance.

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  25. @Jeff Rients

    It's great that your local public library maintains a subscription to the OED that's available to all its patrons. I'm sure you find that very useful. But what use is it to the billions of people in the world who aren't patrons of your local public library?

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  26. When I post comments, I consciously try not to say things in ways that get people worked up. It's difficult, to say the least. :/

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  27. "When I post comments, I consciously try not to say things in ways that get people worked up."

    I try to do that, too. (Most of the time, anyway.) But, as I know you've seen, I often fail.

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  28. Hey, is Dove really Raggi? 'Cause that would be sheer fucking brilliance.

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  29. "...is Dove really Raggi?"

    Yes...I am Iron Man. Uh...I mean...Raggi. Yeah. That's it. What was the question?

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  30. I disagree with Dove's assessment of Zak's comment. While it was acrimonious and perhaps a bit arrogant, it was all about the sassy.

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  31. "I disagree with Dove's assessment of Zak's comment. While it was acrimonious and perhaps a bit arrogant, it was all about the sassy.

    I didn't say it wasn't sassy. I just pointed out the examples of arrogance & petty acrimony in it. That's all.

    While it's possible to be arrogant or pettily acrimonious without being sassy, or sassy without being arrogant or pettily acrimonious, it's also possible to be all three at once.

    Sassiness is merely refusing to act inferior to others.

    Arrogance is acting superior to others.

    Sassiness & arrogance get confused because it's all too common for people to start out merely refusing to act inferior to others, but then going beyond that to act superior to others. Writ large, that's revolutionaries becoming tyrants. Writ small, though, it's just funny people acting like dicks.

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  32. Anyway, back to the topic of the post, you might check out Dungeon Fantastic:
    http://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com/
    It looks like he's doing a dungeony GURPS game, but draws on old school sources.

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  33. Hey, assholes, can we keep the comments here to being about blogs that I don't have on my blogroll?

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  34. Jim: No.

    Ed: For Christ's sake, man. I'm sorry I omitted the second line of my previous post "maybe you could check with your local library". I assumed you could extrapolate without me holding your hand. I further apologize if they don't have public libraries wherever you live.

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  35. Teleleli
    Hack & Slash
    the RPG Corner
    Joesky!!!!!

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  36. maybe mine

    http://mesmerizedbysirens.blogspot.com/

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  37. There is a website -- don't know if it's a blog, but it's about the world of Conan, and I think the name contains the word Xoth. I'll try to find this (for me to link to as well) -- it meshes pretty well with the general LotFP approach, although it's more rooted in a classic Hyborian type of setting. Have to look for it... it has been a long time since I was there, a couple of computer crashes ago.

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  38. Okay, there's no blog associated with it. It's d20, btw, but the material is/was pretty good. The url is http://hyboria.xoth.net/ but since there's not a blog it misses the topic. Worth checking out, anyway. I think I might have contributed a map to this site a billion years ago, but I'm not affiliated with it at all.

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  39. The always brilliant and humble, never sassy or petty, Swords & Dorkery, mikemonaco.wordpress.com

    Pre 1985 D&D <--Check
    The OSR Games (OSRIC, LL, S&W, LotFP, etc)<--Check
    15th-17th century historical focus<--Not really
    Weird Tales stuff (pre 1950s stuff)<--A smidgen
    Old and/or Obscure Horror (art/movie/story)<--some

    What I'm not looking for:

    2e+ D&D<--not much
    White Wolf<--No way Jose
    Actual Play reports<--Guilty as charged

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  40. I second S&D, I thought you already had it on there.

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  41. eh, sorry for egging Dove on. I just wanted to see how many times he would arrogantly define arrogance.
    Anyhow, have you checked out "Swords Against the Outer Dark"?

    http://swordandsanity.blogspot.com/

    I think you just might likey.

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  42. Ed Dove's scholarly comments are winning me over but I would like to hear more before I am fully convinced.

    Ed, you are a principled man not easily silenced when there are important matters to discuss. I can tell you are warming to your task and I for one will savour every last variation on this promising theme of yours.

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  43. My blog is all S&W and OD&D oriented:

    http://in-the-cities.com/

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  44. My blog has a couple of posts what have bypassed OSR. A little about FotFP but I bet there will be more as soon as I get the actual product in my hands (ordered already).

    There are few posts for D&D styled games also.

    Also horror posts.

    And few posts about D&D 3 you don't like and more about Vampire/WoD you don't like.

    Most of the blog is about games, material, roleplaying in general, thoughts and so on but there are few what goes in those categories you do like but also plenty of you dont.

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