Friday, July 10, 2009

A pair of random thoughts

First, in case you missed it on Twitter or Facebook, I did an interview last week with local public radio station KUOW (94.9). It's supposed to air at 12:26 tomorrow afternoon, and a couple of times over the next week, but you can listen to it now on the web.

I got thinking later about one of the things I said in the interview, and I realized that for a number of books that I've worked on, the funny little chapters are my favorites. To wit:

  • The one I mentioned in the interview was the chapter in Deities & Demigods that presented Taiia (the god of a monotheistic religion from Aquela), Elishar and Toldoth (the dualistic religion practiced by my last 1st Edition AD&D character), and the dwarven mystery cult of Dennari (from the Roman campaign).
  • The chapter of Oriental Adventures where I talked about using dwarves as the Crab clan of Rokugan (and elves as the Crane) and talked just a bit about using Asian cultures other than China and Japan as sources.
  • In Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, the chapter with the three fanes you can use to weaken Strahd.

I don't know what it is about those three chapters that I like so much, but somehow they feel like some of my most distinctive contributions to the D&D game. They're quirky and unique. They're me.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although I didn't get to use the idea, I really liked that OA chapter too - something very different!

Unknown said...

The quirky stuff from one edition becomes meat if the next (Far Realm - Planesscape).

OA was a brilliant book. You were robbed of the Ennie. -Graf

Unknown said...

...wow. I always wondered if that chapter of Deities and Demigods was written by someone else. The feeling and tone is so different from the rest.

For the record, that's my favorite chapter. I've used those three gods several times. Thank you. Its evocative, inspiring, and really useful. Thank you. Easily my favorite pages in that whole book.