So, the Run spell basically gives you diarrhea. Prune juice and castor oil sounds like some kind of home remedy my grandmother would have espoused.

I can use pork rinds as a material component? Yes!

Your read-throughs/reviews are aways an enjoyable listen.

First! Oink! = @ )

I wouldn't have believed it of an orange! I mean, a pomelo, sure; everyone knows they they have an evil in their heart...from whence their bitterness seeps. Also, don't you just hate in when you choose the same café as Death for lunch? It really puts a pall over the meal. Thanks for the reading. I'm really enjoying these Lord Dunsany shorts; I listened through this one twice!.

can i ask when the next review is happening? i would endeavor to attend.

Ranor hunts the Aa. Gra hunts Ranor. Zola hunts Gra. Poor Gur was just in the wrong place at the wrong time! I love the animal names. Aa. As in, "Ah, it's a saber tooth tiger!" Gur, like, "The bear says grrr."

Wow. I mean I could see it coming but despite that it was a good story. :)

So true, so very true! With my luck the few words I'm remembered by will be something silly I said. This sort of reminded me of a poem I wrote years ago: *Defective Poem* This poem will enlighten you It knows the secret meaning of life It prevents tooth decay and It promotes humanitarianism This poem can shelter the homeless It can detect radioactive waste It can be used as an emergency flotation device and it makes a tasty, nutritious snack at least it is supposed to but I think It’s defective - - O’Brien Best when read by: 15 December 2000

I am but a heathen. a pagan. an ignorant peasant. Even I can see that lord Dunsany is pretty badass! Thanks grumpy!

The Unearthed Arcana is one of my favorite D&D books but for other reasons.

The Unearthed Arcana remains my ALL TIME favourite AD&D book! :)

I, too, was a fan of the cantrips when they came out in _Dragon_ magazine; however, I quite agree that forcing a magic user to use a first level spell slot to memorize four cantrips on the off chance they'll prove useful doesn't encourage their use during regular play. That said, I was also unwilling to implement an "at will" magic system in AD&D; so, I made it a function of having a familiar. At first, I made it so that if you had a familiar, and said familiar was within a half-mile or within sight (whichever was greater), then you could use one cantrip per day, which one to be chosen at time of use. You got a a bonus cantrip if you had one of the "special" familiars. After _Unearthed Arcana_ came out, I turned that apprentice XP level system (neophyte/initiate/apprentice) into a level system for familiars, with corresponding increase in the amount of cantrips they could provide per day (3 or 4). I always kept it as not needing to select specific cantrips ahead of time. I did, of course, let magic users create their own cantrips at the rate of four related ones being like creating a first level spell (reverses counted as a second slot). Even with all that, I can't say they ever came up often enough to have to worry about them causing an imbalance...usually fun though when they did come up.

I was a big fan of cantrips when they came out. I seem to recall already having been using them based on Dragon articles that preceded Unearthed Arcana. To me, they make 1st-level wizards more on track with other 1st-level characters. You aren't handing them a massive arsenal of new powers, but you are handing them more magical character and a few tricks that might be put to good use by a creative player. I know when 2E came around, we came up with cantrips by school for specialty wizards, establishing the base curriculum for wizards who went into specific fields of magic. I do think that cantrips should have had better options to learn as the wizard went up in level. This could simulate them continuing to dabble with little bits of side magic as they learned more potent spells.

I have heard so many versions of the haunted house and someone sticking themselves to the spot through their coat. The first was on an album from 1973 in elementary school where a boy is dared to sit on a grave at midnight and he sticks his pen knife through his coat. And from there I recognized the same plot in several other stories.

now I'm very interested in checking out Teoquitla.

It's nice to see/hear some of Lovecraft's poetry. Maybe not the best, in terms of poetry, but a neat perspective on the artist's overall vision. I like these reading videos...I have to admit I've consider swiping the idea to read some Japanese folktales. I was looking at my electronic copy of the "The Tongue Cut Sparrow" recently, which has some lovely old artwork in it; and, I it made me think of your reading series. Thanks!

Daniel's Chainmail game was a blast. We had some really lucky rolls near the end.

Just catching up on the stream... Kensington is an awesome game! Simple rules, but complicated in play. IIRC the reason it's called Kensington is because the two guys who invented it use to meet in a park in Kensington when they were designing the game 🙂

What a charming story with a surprisingly profound heart.

I bought a digital copy of the first issue cheap. I thought it would be an interesting take on the era, also, I like weird fiction.

Beautiful stuff, GOS!

I still play a combo of 1st and 2nd ed, also I use some spells from the Net Spellbook as well.

Looking forward to more of your reviews of the original weird fiction pulp stories.

I like your Weird Tales recaps - thanks for doing them! And I really enjoy your reading of the stories. You and Ye Olde Geek both do a great job with those.

They lived happily ever after... disappointing ending.

That was pretty good

wrestling with a decomposing body is nightmare fuel...for sure! Ole Frank was a goodin! thanks alot Grumpy

If that happened to me I'd be beside myself!

Cool Yes it was easy to see where it was going but interesting none the less

And many years later, Bruce Willis would play the role.... :)

Another great bit of short fiction! I saw it coming pretty early on, but does make me wonder about the confusion of the suddenly departed. On a side note, somebody once gave me a pen that actually did feel like it weighed 15-20 pounds; ironically, they gave it to me because they knew I liked to write longhand, and wanted to give me a fancy pen. Of course, I received the gift with aplomb, and never told them it was for too heavy a pend to write with regularly. Cheers!

Creepy, I liked that one

The cover is indeed a cover from a book. Karl Edward Wagner's "Nightwinds" featuring Kane. He is assuredly an Anti-Hero.

Fun story! I've been in some desert canyons where the air is so still that you feel like you' might've slipped into another world. When the narrator first went back to the cabin, and saw the spirits playing cards through the window, I imagined them saying, "Number Six is here, better deal him in...."

First saw this game in a place then called, Family Billiards, a pool hall. They had Moon Patrol, Berzerk and Dragon's Lair.

I think Cartoon Network had a game on their website that was a Dexter's Lab reskin of this.

still the same chilling reading voice and also the visuals look Great!

In the early 80's we had multiple arcades in town. One of them had a somewhat smaller collection of games and they weren't really the top-end ones, but one night per week you could pay $5 and play unlimited games from like 6 to 10. This game, Scramble and Omega Race were the three I spent a lot of time on at that place. Good memories!

oh that was wonderful! Very sad and also terrifying because its like...what happened....the inevitable. Great read :)

Bloody Oak trees . . . bloody dweomers . . . . bloody treants . . . bloody druids. -Dagobert the DisGRUNTled. Oink & a LIKE !!! = @ )

Cool spells

Haunting and poignant. nice ending. question, what are chaplets? I imagine small ornamental jewelry?

How to piss off thousands of nomads - transmute the only oasis in the area to a giant sandbox.

Reminds me of Rutger Hauer's dying speech in Blade Runner, "I have seen things you people wouldn't believe..."

Dark Kingdom is the cover for Karl Edward Wagner's Kane novel, Dark Crusade..

ghoul guarded gateways.....pretty frickin cool! thanks grumpy!

I love frank frazetta for his backgrounds even if the technical aspects aren’t always the best. It is always evocative.

Great choice, Slan. I love this series of Frazetta books. I give the Moon Maid an 11.

= @ * Oink! = @ )