Pen

Been playing lots of Doom WADs lately. Eviternity is excellent.

Have been obsessed with Moonring lately. Beautiful little 80s-style indie crpg with an impeccable sense of world design and exploration. Clearly a ton of inspiration from Ultima 3/4/5 and other similar 80s computer rpgs, but still very much has its own identity. Also totally free, highly recommended

Listening to lots of audiobooks at work lately and was really impressed with Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery and Other Stories." She has an incredible talent for telling you so much about an individual through descriptions of the most mundane of activities.

Really not a fan of when short story collections arrange the stories in chronological order. Publication order is basically always a more enjoyable read.

I think next I might look into reading some Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or maybe Elric of Melnibone.

Favorite repeated phrase:
"By Crom!"

Lease favorite repeated description:
"The [attack] would have [mortally wounded] the [body part] of a lesser man."

The People of the Black Circle (1934)

Probably my favorite of the longer adventures and features one of my favorite passages of prose and one of the better representations of women in these stories with few good heroines to choose from.

Rogues in the House (1934)

A relatively down-to-earth story compared to others. I think I enjoy Conan in an urban setting most where it can contrast against his elemental, primal nature. This along with many of the middle run of adventures feel like the inspiration for so much of early D&D.

The Phoenix on the Sword (1932)

For being the first published story and one that occurs late in the chronology it's impressive how well realized Conan feels here. It does feature him at probably his most philosophical and humble, later stories emphasizing his brutish and boorish elements more.

The Tower of the Elephant (1933)

This was my favorite. It's a great bit of adventure, surprisingly sentimental and really captures the surreal weirdness of REH's Hyborean Age better than any other. Even if you have little interest in Conan or S&S fiction I think it's worth checking out.

I've finished reading all of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories (not including any posthumous publications/collaborations). Below mentioned are a few of my favorites from the lot.

Been making my way through reading all of Robert E. Howard's Conan stories and it got me thinking about how there's almost no video games set in the Bronze Age. There's a few older RTS and Grand Strategy games but that's basically it. A shame since I really would have enjoyed something in that vein.

There is no Capcom vs Capcom fighting game.
Capcom does not want to make it.
Capcom is not going to make it.

Repeat these affirmations in front of the mirror every morning to ensure good mental and spiritual health.

I agree, you've been too nice to dark ages.

HRT - Harm Reduction Toolkit A white first aid kit icon with a pastel pink cross, overlaid onto a pastel blue background. Distribute Aid Logo Link to the fundraiser (available in the post text).

Fuck it. Trans folks need MATERIAL SUPPORT.

@distributeaid.org is launching an HRT Harm Reduction Toolkit that provides 1 year of medical supplies needed to take injection-based HRT. We were planning to go live in January, but I'm not waiting.

Fund the kits here: distributeaid.org/hrt-harm-red...

He has such a bizarrely memorable delivery for nearly everything. My partner was amused whenever she was in the room while I was playing through it recently.

Them turning Doom into a parry game may finally radicalize me against parrying in games. I was already an anti-parry leaning moderate.

Auto-retargeting when the enemy you attacked is already dead might be the most unfortunate thing to ever become standardized in basically all command based rpgs. It actively encourages you to be less engaged with the game most of the time and removes a lot of potentially interesting decision making.

Been in a mood to play something on the SNES recently and was browsing various romhacks to see if anything caught my eye. Does annoy me a little how many of these hacks bill themselves as "quality of life" and then you look at the patch notes and it's mostly balance changes.

Being snobbish about commercial entertainment is dumb so I try my best not to do it. But I need gacha people to understand the way they talk about these games makes it extremely hard not to look down on them as some kind of subhuman, so please be patient.

I've been enjoying the hell out of Tamriel Rebuilt's latest Morrowind Expansion, Grasping Fortune. Incredible density and quality of content as well as faithfulness to the original game's worldbuilding and design. With every expansion they release the project only seems to get better and better.

Sad to see Jack Frost also got put on the mascot character weight loss program like Pikachu.

Encountered some slave catchers on the road to Narsis in @tamriel-rebuilt.bsky.social's latest Morrowind expansion. Responded in the only manner appropriate.

Extremely excited to play this new fan made Morrowind expansion. Given the quality of this team's last few releases I fully expect this to be a contender for my game of the year.

Been watching old seasons of Unsolved Mysteries lately, this show used to scare the hell out of me as a kid. Some really good television too, impressed by how well filmed and directed most of the reenactments are.

What I'm saying is if Konami does make a new Castlevania game and it's not that 1999 game they'd been hyping up for five entries I'm gonna be an annoying person to talk to for a few weeks.

I try not to let the handling of media properties bother me since it's an easy way to become a bitter, unpleasant person. But one thing that does get to me is when some dead series is revived and they make a tepid interquel instead of using the opportunity to conclude a story or make a full sequel.