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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
Category Archives: role-playing games
In memory of Jennell Jaquays, 1956-2024
I was shocked and saddened to learn this morning of the death of Jennell Jaquays, an early and groundbreaking writer for Dungeons & Dragons and other roleplaying games. Jennell had been hospitalized late last year with Guillain-Barré syndrome, and her wife … Continue reading →
Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 32
I have been rather distracted for a few months and haven’t had much time to do old school Dungeons & Dragons threads on social media, but I’m working my way back into the habit! Here’s a compilation of the four … Continue reading →
An Ode to Empire of the Petal Throne
In addition to my long Twitter threads about Old School Dungeons & Dragons products, I’ve written a couple of “odes” to particularly good and influential products, namely Tomb of Horrors and Temple of Elemental Evil. Now I want to do … Continue reading →
Dark Horse, by Mary H. Herbert
There is a quite long history of novels published by TSR based on Dungeons & Dragons, and the quality is definitely a mixed bag! Some of the earliest were the classic Dragonlance novels by Weis and Hickman, the first of … Continue reading →
Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 31
This is the 31st installment of old school Dungeons & Dragons! There’s nothing special about that milestone, other than me realizing that it’s a lot of posts. Anyway, let’s jump right to it… X6: Quagmire! (1984), by Merle M. Rasmussen. … Continue reading →
Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 30
It’s been a while since I compiled any old school Dungeons & Dragons threads from Twitter, but that’s because I hadn’t posted any for quite a while! I finally have another four threads to post, with some truly classic products. … Continue reading →
Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 29
Let’s recap four more old school Dungeons & Dragons threads that I’ve been posting to Twitter and Mastodon! No time to waste: Death’s Ride (1984), by Garry Spiegle. This is one of those books that I have owned since I … Continue reading →
An Ode to “The Temple of Elemental Evil”
As readers of this blog know, I’ve been doing #OldSchoolDungeonsAndDragons Twitter threads for several years now, but every once in a while I talk about an old product that is too significant to cover in a short tweet thread! Back … Continue reading →
Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 28
It’s been a while since I did some Old School Dungeons & Dragons on Twitter, but I’ve finally gotten myself back into the rhythm! (I am now also posting the threads on Mastodon, given the instability of Twitter.) Hopefully I’ll … Continue reading →
Old School Dungeons & Dragons: Part 27
Keeping up my epic long-running series looking at classic Dungeons and Dragons of the TSR era! The Complete Book of Necromancers (1995), by Steve Kurtz. This one is a rarity, and relatively pricey! I finally sucked it up and ordered … Continue reading →
