Almost caught up on my old school Dungeons & Dragons posts from twitter! So here’s part 7!
UK4: When a Star Falls (1984), by Graeme Morris. We start today with another of the UK-produced modules, which tend to have a very different flavor and welcome quirkiness when compared to their US counterparts.
Part 6 in a long series of posts about my month and a half in China. Part 1 can be read here, Part 2 can be read here, Part 3 can be read here, Part 4 can be read here, and Part 5 can be read here.
On the day we arrived in Beijing, and on the day before I nearly killed myself climbing the Great Wall, we warmed up by visiting another of the major historical landmarks of the city: The Temple of Heaven. We in fact visited later in the day, having taken the train from Jinan that morning, but still had plenty of time to see the major sites in what is now a lovely historical park.
That image is just a tease to get your attention, but let’s back up for a minute and discuss the Temple of Heaven, its history, and its purpose.
Still doing the research on some new physics blog posts, but in the meantime, I have a lot of old school Dungeons & Dragons to catch up on! So before I share more science tricks, here’s part 6!
CB1: Conan Unchained (1984), by David Cook. As a company, TSR was not immune to the allure of making more money by licensing deals. Later, I’ll discuss some products that will blow your mind! One of the more obvious choices was to take advantage of the popularity of a certain barbarian, and the actor who played him!
Trying to keep my game of catch-up on old school D&D alive, so here’s part 5!
WG5: Mordenkainen’s Fantastic Adventure (1984), by Robert J. Kuntz and Gary Gygax. This adventure is reeeeeally old school, even though it was published in 1984!
The name sounds a bit silly, but don’t let it fool you: this adventure was first written in 1972/1973 by Robert Kuntz in order to challenge the skills of none other than Gary Gygax, who used his wizard Mordenkainen! It is a quite punishing dungeon.
Time for another edition of Old School Dungeons & Dragons! I did soooooo many of these threads on twitter, I’m kinda amazed and appalled. Still have many to catch up on here…
DDA1: Arena of Thyatis (1990), by John Nephew. This more obscure module is one I’ve had in my collection for a long time, but only finally got around to reading once I started these threads!
The final long-awaited conclusion of a trilogy of posts describing the history of the discovery of conservation of energy, inspired by my research on “Falling Felines and Fundamental Physics.” Part 1 can be read here, and part 2 can be read here.
NOTE: Be prepared this is a long post! James Joule did a lot.
In 1798, Count Rumford had noted that there was a problem with the accepted caloric theory of heat. In 1842, Julius Robert Mayer presented a theory of conserved “forces,” basically laying out for the first time a theory of what we now call conservation of energy, in which energy is neither created nor destroyed, but only changes form. Mayer furthermore gave a quantitative estimate of the mechanical equivalent of heat, viewing heat as a form of motion (as we now know today to be true).
James Joule, circa 1863. Taken from the Memoir of James Prescott Joule (1892).
But neither Rumford nor Mayer pursued their investigations with enough rigor to convince the scientific community to embrace such a radical new vision of physics. Such work would instead be done by a third unlikely researcher: James Prescott Joule (1818-1889), the son of a wealthy brewer and a remarkably young man when he made his key breakthroughs in the 1840s. Starting from simple investigations into the efficiency of engines, Joule would eventually, almost ruthlessly, demonstrate the energy equivalence of a variety of different types of natural phenomena — mechanical work, heat, electricity, and chemical reactions. His studies would transform our understanding of the universe and connect different aspects of it in ways previously almost undreamed of.
Working hard to make my old school D&D posts catch up to the ones I’ve done on twitter, which were a lot! Part 1 of Old School Dungeons & Dragons on the blog can be read here, and part 2 can be read here.
And as you can see, here’s part 3!
Dungeon Masters Adventure Log (1980). In my old school post, I mentioned the Dungeon Masters Adventure Log, which intrigued me. Well, soon afterwards, I got myself a copy, and it is charming!
Part 5 in a long series of posts about my month and a half in China. Part 1 can be read here, Part 2 can be read here, Part 3 can be read here, and Part 4 can be read here.
My trip to China was so filled with activities — and overwhelming at times — that I’m finding it easier to jump around a bit chronologically in my posts, and talk about things as the mood strikes me.
Today I’m in the mood to talk about my visit to the Great Wall of China!
It was in my fourth week in China that my gracious hosts took me, and a Russian colleague, to visit Beijing. There is so much to see in that incredible city, but in the few days we were there we had three targets in mind: The Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, and, of course, the Great Wall. We visited The Temple of Heaven on the day we arrived, and then got up relatively early to see the Great Wall the next day. My hosts hired a driver to take us there, and it was in the car that we got our first glimpse of the wall, and a hint of the physical challenge it can be. My misgivings would be prophetic!
I saw this view of the wall from the car and immediately said “oh, crap.”
As long as I’m still on an old school kick, let me try and catch up with all my posts from twitter! Part 1 of Old School Dungeons & Dragons on the blog can be read here.
Without further ado, here’s part 2!
N4: Treasure Hunt (1986), by Aaron Allston. The first thing you may notice when looking at the cover is that this module is unusual in that it is for 0th level characters! What is the deal with that?
In recent months, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with my early years of Dungeons & Dragons. I got into the hobby around 1981, the year that the red box Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set came out, and was a pretty hard core roleplayer until about 1994, when I went into grad school. (And I still played some RPGs in grad school, but not with the intensity of those early years.)
The 1981 D&D Basic Set.
To get my nostalgia fix, I’ve been tweeting about “old school” Dungeons & Dragons products. There’s already been a hint of it on this blog, in my Ode to the Tomb of Horrors post from April. But I never seem to be able to do anything halfway, and my simple reminisces have turned into the purchasing of new products and increasingly detailed historical threads on old products.
At this point, it would be a shame to not include these thoughts somewhere more permanent than twitter, so here we are! This is the first in a series of who knows how many posts on my #OldSchoolDungeonsAndDragons reminisces and insights.
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. 
Skulls in the Stars 