Escape Routes (Novel Excerpt)

This is the fourth excerpt from my upcoming novel tentatively titled “Elder Rites” which was begun on November 1st, 2020 for National Novel Writing Month and is intended to be the first volume of an as yet unnamed dark fantasy series set in a world of myth and magic which now finds itself on the

Little Finger of Vecna: A Neutral Evil Rogue of Some Question

I can’t imagine that anyone is at all interested in my not-so-original D&D character creations, especially when they only exist in an ancient video game hardly anyone plays anymore, but I do enjoy writing about them, so there’s that. This time around my inspiration comes from Petyr Baelish, a character from HBO’s fantasy series Game

The Rotting Horse on the Deadly Ground

As my fifty-first birthday approaches I’ve been waxing nostalgic and so, at the suggestion of my sister, have laboured long and hard putting together a retrospective metal playlist to serve as a soundtrack for the coming celebrations. I wanted it to sort of tell the story of how I became a headbanger thirty-six years ago

Camp NaNoWriMo Achievement Unlocked: Night Owl Status Restored!

I take it back, NaNoWriMo.org! I’m not sure if you fixed the problem or if it fixed itself, but this time all it took was two more updates between 10PM and midnight over the past two days to get rid of that hideous mid-day flamingo and replace it with the more sensible, refined character of

My Camp NaNoWriMo Project

I’ve struggled for nearly a month over what I would make my Camp NaNoWriMo project this year, assuming I’d even participate, because part of me wanted to work on the novel I’d already started and still am nowhere near finishing, and part of me wanted to leave that on the back burner and just begin

Eohild, Shield-maiden of Rohan

Sometimes when I play Neverwinter Nights over again from the beginning, which I do so often it’s become a running joke in my household, I create a character I love so well that I want to share them with the world. This is one of those times, and one of those characters, even though she’s

A Few of My Favourite Things, Part I

One of the things I love about blogging is that I get to tell perfect strangers all about the things I love. Imagine trying to do that during a long flight, or sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. The difference is that I don’t have a captive audience. This blog is more

The Movies and Stories that Inspired Dave Arneson to Invent the Dungeon Crawl — DMDavid

Around 1971 Dave Arneson and his circle of Minneapolis gamers invented games where players controlled individual characters who grew with experience and who could try anything because dice and a referee determined the outcomes. The group tried this style of play in various settings, but Dave invented one that proved irresistible: the dungeon. Dave’s Blackmoor… The

Reminiscing About Video Games Based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Vol II

A while back I waxed nostalgic about some of the video games I’ve enjoyed in the past that were set in the fantasy world created by my favourite author, J. R. R. Tolkien, and as a playful nod to the fact that both the SNES game The Lord of the Rings, Vol I and Ralph

Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth — The Solo Meeple

Bilbo advanced, keeping to the undergrowth and taking slow, measured steps. He’d strayed far from the others, but that didn’t worry him, he was good at remaining hidden. His biggest worry, though, was the time it was taking. He knew people were depending upon them but finding the Orc’s hideout was proving more difficult than […]