I thought I found a "lost" Holloway print

This is actually from "Friend of the Lair" Jason Chalker's collection. But the style is definitely reminiscent of Jim Holloway.
I love it! I want more.

This and more from Jason Chalker can be found here.

Virtual Gaming using corkboard

I’ve been part of a Monday night Barbarians of Lemuria game set in Hyboria. We play online using Skype and Open RPG.

I’ve been having a great time with it and have really started to look forwards to Monday nights as my “game night”. It’s not in person, but we still manage to have some good laughs and manly banter.

The open RPG is pretty crappy though. I’m finding more and more that I don’t really need to see little tokens on a board to have fun with all of this, Especially with the Barbarians of Lemuria system. I think we use open rpg mostly for the dice roller but that’s not even worth it in my opinion as the dice program seems to run in strings of either high or low rolls.

I’m thinking a using a virtual whiteboard might just be better. You lose the pog idea but that’s not really all that much.

In fact someone (I'm not sure whether it was Stargazer or Greywulf) turned me on to Corkboard.me

I whipped toghether a virtual table top for a Dicey tales game. See here.

Corkboard has a chat function. I'm going to email the creator and suggest a dice rolling function to be added to the chat, Who knows, maybe he's a gamer huh?

A review of The Desert of Souls

The Desert of Souls

(Full disclosure- Howard is one of my many Online friends and as such I was sent a hardback copy from the publisher, but I enjoyed the story so much that I purchased my own Kindle Edition to have with me on hand)

Howard Andrew Jones, best known for his editorial work at Blackgate Magazine and the Harold Lamb collection from Bison Books has released his first novel featuring the adventuring duo Dabir and Asim, it is titled, The Desert of Souls.


The Desert of Souls gives us the origin of the partnership of these two characters, and lays the foundation for their long and adventure filled career. Dabir and Asim have adventured through a series of short stories written by Jones over several years now. Their adventures have graced the pages of historical fiction and sword & sorcery collections as well as those of Blackgate magazine. Dabir is a Scholar and Asim a swordsman and officer. The pair resides in the middle east of legend where they are often called upon, by their Caliph and others, to investigate mysterious happenings and solve the impossible.

At first glance it would be easy to pin the label of “Holmes and Watson meet the Arabian Nights” upon them, but that would be a gross injustice to the richness of the characters and the level of craftsmanship Jones has given these stories.

The Desert of Souls tells of a mission to solve a riddle and then to save an empire. Throughout the tale the duo faces wizards, assassins, necromancers, and demons amongst their many foes.
Despite these numerous foes, I never felt that Jones went too far in the use of the fantastic. He never loses the sword & Sorcery feel, where magic is rare and inherently a tool that corrupts.

I enjoyed Asim’s first person account of the story. There were several places where his characterization is so deep that I felt I was reading an actual recollection. Jones cites Robert E. Howard as one of his influences, Howard is famous for bringing his readers so deep into the story that we forget the characters, much less the setting, was a figment of his imagination. Jones it seems has learned these lessons well, as I found myself more and more invested in the character of Captain Asim.

While Desert of Souls is a full-fledged adventure story with plenty of action, swordfights, and nefarious sorcery, it is also the tale of two friends. The chemistry between the duo is readily apparent and the dialogue truly enjoyable. I was especially pleased at the wit and humor of their conversations, something lost in this genre since the early stories of Leiber’s Fafhrd and Grey Mouser.

The Villains and supporting characters are also well thought out, each with virtues, vices and depth lacking in many other tales found in this genre.

It’s apparent that Jones loves not only the genre but the rich setting of the Orient as well. The tale is well researched and presents an enchanting glimpse into lands that are rarely visited by other writers of Sword & Sorcery fiction.

Messrs. Howard and Lamb would be proud of their student.

Musical Monday

Lazy Sunday Photodump

GEEK ALERT! Behind the Scenes on the set of "The Hobbit"

A million thanks to "Friend of the Lair" Jason Chalker for the heads up on this.

Nerdgasm time.

ZeFRS fans raise $210.00 for disaster relief efforts in Japan

 

We are proud to announce that through the sales of Legends of Steel : ZeFRS Edition, Evil DM Productions was able to raise $210.00 for the Earthquake and Tsunami relief efforts through the Save the Children Foundation.

Thank you to all who donated.