Excited to have two tables reserved in the Gaming Room (Coronado Ballroom) at A-Kon this year! Join us from May 31-June 2 in Dallas, TX, for the one-and-only first look at Mazaki No Fantaji, our latest gaming project. We will be running two sessions simultaneously all weekend, giving intrepid gamers ample opportunity to join in and check out the fastest, most intense d10 role-playing game we’ve ever seen! Match wits with your friends to win T-shirts, posters, coupons, and other SWAG. Join us upstairs Friday or Saturday for a closer look at the system and a chance to hobnob with…
Essays
In 1938, Johann Huizinga published a seminal work on play, Homo Ludens. In this text he theorizes what he calls the “magic circle” that surrounds play. This circle is bound spatially, socially, and temporally. Spatial edges of the circle are easy enough to see. Sports, for example, are played on…
So, we’re contemplating magic again. Just something in the air, I guess. Admittedly, this begins as pure semantics, but as we all know: Semantics is the beginning of a conversation, not the end. Around the shop the opinion is split. Do you rate magic as “low” or “high” based on…
One of my favorite elements of the Japanese science-fiction/fantasy tradition is the connection between magic and technology.* In the Euro-American tradition, magic is almost always characterized as the romantic opposite of cold technology.** Technology represents the mechanized world, facts, logic, and objectivity. Magic, in contrast, represents human will, creativity, mother…
Recent Headlines
Hey, all! Calvin is hopping around Gen Con for the next few days, looking for sweet deals, sweet games, and sweet… you! The booths are a little too expensive for a one-book publisher so everything…
So, we spent four days in Bedford, Texas, this weekend for the North Texas RPG Con, which specializes in old-school RPGs and retro clones. Most everybody was playing Oe, with a few AD&D slots and…
