Monte Cook's Blog, page 144

Book Review: Soon I Will Be Invincible

I've loved superheroes since I was a very little boy. For more than 35 years, I've been immersed in all the familiar tropes. It's clear to me that Austin Grossman has been as well. His book, Soon I Will be Invincible, hits almost all the right notes when it comes to capturing the feel of comic book superheroes and villains, despite the fact that he's written a novel. I used to believe that superheroes wouldn't work in prose, but that's because most of the...

Too Much

Sometimes I get feeling really down because I'm not doing everything. I mean, even if you put aside all the non-work-related stuff: all the books I want to read, all the movies and shows I want to watch, all the friends I want to spend time with, all the games I want to play, all the hobbies I want to participate in, all the classes I want to take, all the events I want to go to, and so on (and on), there's still too much to do.

I think about all the contacts I should be following up o...

Two New Interviews

I was recently interviewed by the nice people who put out Big Iron Vault and it appears in issue #4, which is just out now.

Also, the very cool Johnn Four interviewed me for his weekly newsletter, Roleplaying Tips (#480). And as an aside, if you're a GM for any system, you're going to find Johnn's free newsletter extremely useful every week. I highly recommend it.

More Comics Thoughts

Marvel recently announced that they're going back to a time when heroes were more clearly heroic and the general outlook was more optimistic. That's fine by me. This is clearly a throwback to what comics were like when I was a kid, and so I'm certainly not going to object to that. An attempt to make the Marvel Universe back into the place I fell in love with back then seems like a great idea.

Here's the thing, though. If Marvel really wants to recapture that time, the thing...

Comics Writers

A few days ago, I wrote about credits in shared world instances and I mentioned that in the 1980s, Marvel's attitude was "it's not the writers or the artists that matter, it's the characters."

This will always stick with me because, at least for me, it's precisely the opposite of the truth. I don't follow the characters. Sure, I like some more than others, but I'm not going to follow Iron Man no matter what because I just can't stand the thought of missing any of Tony Stark's exp...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                              

 

 

MONTE COOK’S DUNGEONADAY.COM IS ONE YEAR OLD!

Site offers game fans a daily dose of adventure.

March 4, 2010 (Milwaukee, Wis.)—Dungeonaday.com, Monte’s subscription-based adventure site, is celebrating its 1 year anniversary this month. The web site, known for offering great game material and DMing advice to its members, introduced Dragon's Delve, a vast dungeon with a complex history. Along with the nearby...

All Malhavoc Press pdf products are 25% off now through the weekend!

Enjoy!

Poor Credit Scores

This morning I was looking through a WotC-published monster book from a few years back and came upon a monster that I knew had appeared somewhere before but couldn't remember where. Perhaps the mists of sleep still clouded my mind a bit, because my first thought was, "I'll just look to see who originally created the monster, and that will help me figure it out." Of course, a tenth of  a second later I remembered, WotC doesn't credit the original creator of the material.

Now, ...

At the Movies

Okay, I've heard it all already. The popcorn is way overpriced. People in the audience talk during the show. The ticket prices are too high. There's nothing good out anymore. I'd rather watch it at home.

Know what? I don't care. When the lights dim, and Sue and I settle into our seats in that theater, I know I'm in the right place. Just walking into the theater, before we buy our tickets, I get a bit of a rush. Sometimes, when I'm watching the previews, munching popcorn, I forget ...

Conan is a Jerk

Sorry to disappoint fans of late night television or relatively current entertainment news, but the Conan of the title of this piece is not Conan O'Brien. Instead, the fellow I'm (very slightly) maligning likely signs his residuals checks with "the Barbarian" after his name. Yes, I'm speaking of the Robert E. Howard character. And if your only experience with the character is the Schwarzenegger movies, well, this all is probably not going to mean much to you, because those film...