Andre Norton's Quag Keep

Stolen shamelessly from Blog of Holding,
because I am lazy.

Found a copy at a thrift store over the weekend. I only recognized it because there's a blog named after it that I read sometimes. The book cost all of a buck, so I figured what the hell and bought it. It wasn't until I did some Googling that I found out that Quag Keep is the first D&D novel and is set in the world of Greyhawk. Double neat-o.

Roll a die for him, Happy Gary Gygax Day!

Going by the plethora of posts I've been seeing, today is a geek holiday marking what would have been the 74th birthday of Gary Gygax, creator of D&D and father of roleplaying games in general. While I've never played Dungeons and really, only ever played a pen and paper RPG once in my entire life, I am a fan of RPG video games and because of that, I raise my glass in solemn and heartfelt thanks to him. Without him, there probably would not be a Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Star Ocean, Mass Effect, or Dragon Age series.

Thanks Gary!

Picture via Futurama Wiki. Oh, and hat tip to Eli Arndt, since I stole his idea of using a picture from the episode of Futurama that Gygax was in.

For the OSR geeks

PvP Online - Rumor has it.

Lord Voldemort is basically a Lich

Note: This is a cross-post from my other blog, Giant-Size Nerd-Thing!.

Did he turn his nose into a horcrux too?

I had this realization late last night. If you think about Voldemort and his plan to achieve immortality, then he's really no different than a Lich from Dungeons & Dragons or Greyhawk. For the uninitiated, a Lich is a spellcaster who attempts to become immortal by creating an object called a phylactery and placing his soul into it. That sounds a lot like Lord Voldemort's horcruxes from Harry Potter, doesn't? Another similarity is that the phylactery must be hidden and protected, because if it's ever destroyed, then the Lich can then be killed permanently.

Relics of the Damned - The Hand of Vecna

Adventurers beware, for scattered reports have circulated of sightings of the infernal relic, the Hand of Vecna. Gnarled and charred black with long, ragged fingernails, it promises power, but gives only damnation.