Art Requests

[Uatu]

Lovecraft, Forgotten Realms, and Dragonlance is of course game (all have AD&D material out there already - I recently got my hands on Lovecraft stats ).

Tolkien, as the progenitor of medieval fantasy as we know it (and who profoundly influenced AD&D as a result) is of course good as well...

But we'll see (Not sure what use I would have for Great Old Ones or Caramon in my game...)

[Uatu]

So, there is a new blob of pixels that is supposed to be a raven icon...

(Besides, there is also a new wild boar, giant weasel, and magic-user icon.)

Since each page was getting rather large, I also reorganized my icons into pages by type (climate, too, although it is not finished)...

[manikus]

Since we're sharing favorite authors, I guess I'll give out my few.
Eco, I've already mentioned (love his novels, but the plays not so much, but he writes top-notch papers about linguistics), Tolkein as mentioned by others, and the last one relevant to the fantasy genre is George R. R. Martin- If you haven't read the Song of Ice and Fire series, stop what you're doing and go find them. The other two of my top five are not fantasy or sci-fi, but the runner-up 6th spot goes to Dan Simmons. He wrote some amazing books in the Hyperion series (Hyperion, Hyperion Rising, Endymion, Endymion Falling) and I am reading one of he other books, Illium (as in the Illiad). He wrote some crime/mystery novels which I have not read, but they've received very favorable reviews. Runner-ups for 7th and 8th place are outside of the genres we're discussing, but at a tie for 9th place are J.K. Rowling and Phillip Pullman (Harry Potter series and His Dark Materials series, respectively).

On a related note, if you're the least bit interested in conspiracies or counter-culture, the "Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea is a must read. Those books (which I found bound together in one volume) had me cracking up the whole read through.

Okay, now I've got to go check out some new icons.

[Arminius]

Originally Posted by SilentThief HP Lovecraft (any), Steven King (any), Sci-fi: John Steakley's Armor, Hienlien (spelled wrong?), R.A. Salvatore's Forgotten Realms books, Hickman Weis, Tolkien... ST

I haven't read a whole lot of Lovecraft but I do love his style. I've read much more Robert E Howard than Lovecraft [they shared their ideas to some extent and followed each others work]. I've read a few of Heinlein's works and really enjoyed them. I like the one where America is invaded by the Chinese Empire and a small group of Americans in a hidden military facility built into a mountain figure out a fun way to turn the tables on the invaders. And natually Tolkien was one of my favorites as kid. The hobbit probably grabbed me more as a kid though. It wasn't till I was older that I could appreciate the much larger Trilogy.

[Arminius]

I'll check those out manikus. AS for fantasy other than REH, I haven't read a lot of fantasy but some I really loved were all of the Guardians of the Flames books by Joel Rosenberg and the Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula Le Guin. I also love really old scifi like everything by H.G.Wells, Jules Verne, and all the many lesser names from the good olden days of scifi. So far I haven't gone wrong with them and I've tried many different silver & golden age authors [to borrow a little comic book lingo], pretty much any I can find at our local used book store where I can get those old paper backs for between .50 cents and a dollar. I can read those books really fast, too fast. I usually feel kind of sad because they are over so quickly so I keep buying more. lol. I'm definately addicted to the older style of writing. They way the characters talk and everything is different. Even without the far out sci-fi premises the writing itself is an escape from everyday reality.

[Uatu]

New icon for today:

Red slaad (the modrons need something to fight, after all...)

[manikus]

This is so cool. Will we be seeing the other colors? (Please...)

[Uatu]

I wish the slaadi were all the same size - would make it easier for sure (at least the grey and death slaadi seem the same size)...

Also, I noticed that death slaadi colors are not specified in the Fiend Folio... So far we have (true forms):

Red slaad (red, 8')
Green slaad (green, 7')
Blue slaad (blue, 10')
Grey slaad (gray, 6')
Death slaad (???, 6')
Ssendam (golden, ?')
Ygorl (black, 15')

Considering this, the only colors left over are white, yellow, orange, purple, and brown As yellow and orange are too much like gold, that leaves us with white, purple, and brown - of these, white seems the most "primary," so I guess I would make 'em white... (Also, I guess I would make Ssendam's true form the same size as that of Ygorl.)

[manikus]

That logic sounds good to me. I wonder if Gygax et al went through a similar process...

[Uatu]

Hmm... So, how many monodrones (the lowliest natives of Nirvana) would it take to equal the might of a single red slaad (the lowliest natives of Limbo)? Doesn't seem like a fair fight to me...

And if one can summon slaadi using the cacodemon spell, etc., then why can't one summon modrons? (Wait - maybe it's because modrons don't have names? Or do they? )