I need this shirt on my body

Shirt available at RedBubble. Direwolf and Longclaw sold separately.

h/t Wil Wheaton.

What the Avengers really do in between missions

I'm digging Hulk as the DM. You'd figure someone like Tony would be the one running the game, but that was a nice twist. I just wonder what their character classes would be:

• Iron Man: Fighter.
• Thor: The obvious choice would be fighter, what with his hammer. On the other hand, he has the ability to summon lightning, so maybe a paladin or a stormlord?
• Wasp: Wizard, as per the picture.
• Giant-Man: Alchemist? Some kind of spellcaster?
• Captain America: Paladin, obviously.
• Hawkeye: Fighter.
• Black Widow: Rogue.
• Hulk: Battlerager/Berserker.

Picture via The Warlock's Home Brew.

In a Game of Blogs, you either make 100 posts or you die

Alternate title: POSTS FOR THE POST GOD, SKULLS FOR THE SKULL THRONE!!!!

It's a terribly serious game. The burn ward is always full. Anywho, this marks the 100th post of Swords, Dragons, and Nerds, so see you suckers later, I'm out.

Okay, not really, but thanks for the patronage and support. I'm actually amazed that this thing has managed to accumulate over 5500 hits. It isn't much, but a lot more than I thought I'd get. At any rate, I do have a question, though: How many of you have me in your blogrolls? I know The Lair of the Breviks and Daddy Grognard both do, and I'm almost certain that there's a third blog, whose name escapes me at the moment. I'm curious because it'll help me gauge how well I'm doing with this blog.

How much is that Balrog in the window?

"'fraid it's not enough, son." The blacksmith pronounced 'son' as 'soon'.

Merle looked down at the small collection of coins in his right hand, frowning at the imbalance between bronze and silver, then looked up at the other man sheepishly. "...it's all I have...sir."

The smith, a squat man of balding orange hair grumbled and inspected the coins again, pushing the bronze aside for any silvers he missed. He grunted. "Still not enough, son. Even my cheapest armor and weapons cost more than all that."

The young man bit his lip and fought off a tremble that threatened to run loose through his body. He could feel a tear start to form in the corners of his eyes. "Please...I need weapons and armor, I'll promise to work them off."

"Not hiring and the constabulary frowns on free labor."

"I'll send money back from jobs and whatever loot I can muster."

This is the face of a man who has seen things

And clearly wishes he hadn't.

Mordheimer by Undermound.

"Join a warband, they said. Live a life of adventure and profit, they said. Well, nobody bothered to tell me that I'd be fighting ratmen!"

I like his equipment. Back when I was working on that untitled story, this is how I planned to have soldiers in the main character's army look.

(via Sword'n'Sorcery)

Image inspiration: An old Knight

A Wiki of Ice and Fire.

Obviously, this isn't just any "old" knight, but Ser Barristan Selmy, former Lord Commander of the Kingsguard from A Song of Ice and Fire. Aside from that, this picture serves as an interesting piece of inspiration. I've been mulling over a fictional world I had started to lay the groundwork for many, many years ago and an aged knight would fit right into a potential cast of characters. A couple of possibilities come to mind:

Bastard names of Westeros

One of the interesting things about A Song of Ice and Fire is the surnames given to bastards - illegitimate sons and daughters of noble lords. They're specific to the region that that person was born at, so for example, bastards of the North are called Snow, while those in the Vale are Stone. A Wiki of Ice and Fire has the rest. The Ironborn have the least creative, with their bastards bearing the name Pyke. Yeah, they name their bastards after the castle of the Iron Islands. You'd think they would have gone with the obvious choice of Iron, but I can't say that I'm not surprised; the Ironmen don't strike me as clever. On the other hand, at least they haven't pulled an Aegon IV and legitimatized all of their bastards, which can lead to serious problems down the road.

Finished The Crown Conspiracy

Several days ago, actually. I then decided to decompress a bit before posting about it. I'm not going to write a review, because, well, I suck at writing reviews. As I said in a previous post, I really liked The Crown Conspiracy and Theft of Swords. I wish there was a bit more fighting in it, but that's just me. Several questions were left unanswered (like Royce's relations to elves), but presumably they're tackled in later stories. I do think there's some roleplay potential with the Riyria-verse. The Crown Conspiracy features fighters, thieves, monks, and spellcasters (male and female). There's also a few scenes in the book that would make for some interesting dungeon crawling.

Tomorrow, I start work on finishing A Game of Thrones.

Building a medieval town the old fashioned way

Oh yes, it's a thing that is happening in Germany. A group of archaeologists, historians, architects, and workers are doing something beyond ambitious: Building a monastery town the 9th century way. Yup, no modern equipment or luxuries, just 52 buildings constructed with blood, sweat, and presumably a lot of cursing. The purpose of the project is to get an idea of what it was like to do that kind of large scale construction back in the middle ages.

Apparently the project will take 50 years to complete, which adds a bittersweet touch to it, as its originator, Bert Geurten, is 62 years old, meaning that he'll be long dead before its completion. Hell, I'll probably be knee deep in the grave by that point.

I think this a project that fantasy writers, GMs, wargamers, and others should keep an eye on.

Theft of Swords so far

A Fantasy Reader.

Well, I figured that since I’ve been reading Theft of Swords for little over a week now, I’d give a status update. Right now, I’m sitting on page 230, with 81 pages left to go. The Crown Conspiracy, the first book in ToS, is freaking fantastic! This is seriously becoming one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read. Awesome plot with nice twists and endearing, interesting characters make it well worth reading.

Also, apologies for my lack of blogging

I blame it on a mix of housework, library runs, reading, and a general blogging fatigue. Another point of interest is that I've done some cleaning up of the blogrolls and removed largely inactive blogs. Some of them hadn't been updated for a month or more, but I'm still subscribed to them in Google Reader, so if they show signs of life, I'll re-add them. I may wait until they get a bit more active, however. Hate to re-add one, then have it go dead again.

Currently reading: Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan

Shamelessly stolen from A Fantasy Reader.

Or should I say, reading half of Theft of Swords. Went yardsaling with the folks last weekend and hit a mini-gold mine of books: this one, along with A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows, all for four dollars! That harkens back to my only reading the first half of Michael J. Sullivan's excellent book, which is actually two novels in one omnibus. I want to finish A Game of Thrones, because I feel like I've put it off long enough and I want to read the rest of the series before next year. Since Theft of Swords already has its hooks in me and the first book, The Crown Conspiracy, is only 313 pages, I'm going to finish it first, then GoT.

As for The Crown Conspiracy, I really like it! Hadrian and Royce are quickly becoming two of my favorite fantasy characters. I still can't believe I got all four books for a dollar apiece. Damn!

For the fans of Steve Jackson Games

I thought this video might be of interest. Steve Jackson was on the most recent episode of TableTop, playing Munchkin against Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, and Sandeep Parikh. TableTop is a web series created by Wheaton and Day as part of the latter's Geek and Sundry YouTube channel. It's actually a pretty excellent show where Wheaton plays different games with a rotating guest list. I'm not going to say who wins, so you'll have to watch. Suffice to say, it's entertaining, what with the backstabbing and two-timing.