Howard Scholarship: Ponderings on Thurian/Hyborian Geography
Dale Rippke, of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association, is recognized as perhaps one of the foremost scholars on the work of Robert E. Howard today. He is responsible for what is considered one of the more accurate probable timelines of Conan's career, and has contributed to scholarship of REH in many ways. He's written a series of articles at the REHupa website entitled "The Mysteries of the Hyborian Age." As with most of his work, the articles are exceptionally interesting and enlightening to read, though I have developed serious issues with his interpretations of certain events, particularly those in which he writes of the layout of the Thurian Age (the age of Kull),

IT'S FRIDAY
...in case you didn't notice.It's been very quiet at work the past couple of weeks, which has been a very welcome respite, particularly since within the next week or so it's going to get ridiculous with the training grant renewal coming up. But as people who follow my OD&D blog, Wasted Lands, know, I got some new work done on my Age of Conan OD&D supplements. People are seeming to really dig them. I'd absolutely LOVE to somehow get hold of the license for Kull and do a whole game based on that mythos based on my Spellcraft & Swordplay engine. That would rock--and S&S is 95% compatible with OD&D using Chainmail, and the rules tweaks are in place from the Age of Conan stuff I d

The Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard
I just received these last week from the REH Foundation.http://www.rehfoundation.org/?page_id=29They came with a facsimile of one of Howard's actual letters to H.P. Lovecraft. I am in seventh heaven. I've wanted a collection of Howard's letters since I was about 12 (yes, I was a weird kid). Now I have them. ALL of them. Early reactions

New Conan Movie Is a Travesty
The production team of the new Conan movie, scheduled for filming in February 2010, promised us when they came on board that this one would hew very closely to Robert E. Howard's original source material. It was their sole imperative, they said, to give us a film that properly represented the character, his world, and themes, which would move it light years away from the Schwarzenegger films of the 80's. They lied.A plot synopsis and casting sheet has been released for the film. You can find details here. All of this information has been confirmed by multiple sources--it's accurate. Even a casual reading will reveal th

V
They came in 1983: fifteen motherships, each five miles across, hovering over fifteen major cities in the world. They came in peace, so they claimed, refugees of a planet in the Sirius star system, in dire environmental need. We could help them by letting them produce certain organic compounds to re-terraform their world, and in return they would share all the fruits of their knowledge with us.Only they lied.They weren't here for compounds. They were here for the water--all of the water. And for us. It seems that they were involved in a war of their own, against an enemy who had the capacity to defeat them, and they needed troops and cannon fodd