Sep 12
In the fantasy world, you can pretty much combine any any other animal into a creature and still call it a dragon. Dragon turtles are the terrors of AD&D maritime kingdoms. A Chinese dragon/lhasa apso hybrid featured strongly in The NeverEnding Story movie. And as I’ll continue to do on my site for September, there …
Sep 05
One thing that can be said of the dragon sketch above, he certainly has personality! See more versions of Smaug here. Here’s something different in the worldbuilding department, a selection of randomgen* dragons for writing or gaming use, generated from lists of different characteristics like color, size, and type of treasure horde. A few random …
Aug 29
Kajira is the term used for the eternally youthful, eternally hapless, eternally helpless slave girls found in John Norman’s Gor series. Gor, for those not in the know, is a Conanesque planet superficially similar to Earth and sharing the same orbit, but on the opposite side of the sun so it remains undiscovered. The first …
Aug 22
The making of perfume is almost as old as human agriculture. A perfume-making operation dating to around 4000 BCE was unearthed on the island of Cyprus in 2005, which is when humans were still in the Bronze Age. The Indus Valley civilization produced perfumes a few hundred years later, and Babylon in 1200 BCE. It …
Aug 15
Here’s something a little different, a set of randomly generated noble families (with a little tweaking) for use in a roleplaying game or as story background. I find that when these disparate elements are put together, the story or adventure may practically write itself. What would happen, for example, if Vylen Lemugia returns home and …
Aug 08
Crests of modern cities in Germany. Top row, left to right: Stuttgart, Nurnberg, Tubingen. Middle row: Atzelgift, Honigsee, Nachtsheim. Bottom row: Falkenfels, Trechtingshausen, Flogeln. The production designers for George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones TV series have done a smashup job creating a fantasy world like Medieval Europe (in spite of those ice-zombies …
Aug 01
Continuing my series of randomly generated names for fictional U.S. states that sound similar to the existing ones. This time, I’ll tackle the Mid-Atlantic states. Grand Theft Auto, from Rock Star Games, has been there before me, allowing players to be one of the bad guys stealing cars from “Aldernay” (New Jersey) and its urban …
Jul 18
One of the things that really makes Steampunk literature, and Victorian literature in general, is the use of odd English words to describe little odds and ends that need describing, like parts of machinery, personal items of clothing, genitalia, obscure occupations, and other fluff. Charles Dickens was a pioneer of these charming names, through …
Jul 11
Chances are, when you think of the Himalayan mountains, you see sharp, snow-capped peaks, desolate valleys, and peaceful yaks. Or, maybe this. This was my favorite ride as a teen at the Jersey Shore. At night, all lit up, it was truly spectacular. Even then, however, I knew people didn’t ski or stay at ski …
Jul 04
Because it’s the Fourth of July, my mind turns to other versions of the United States of America. Perhaps, if some butterfly was crushed on the dirt paths of time, this country would be the United Provinces of America. Or still part of Britain and called the United Colonies. Maybe Amerigo Vespucci’s name was never …
