Miscellania 10/1/2012

Miscellaneous thoughts and links...

• Oops, I totally forgot there are grimoire rules in the Savage Worlds Horror Companion.  I like mine better.  
• I've been meaning to link to this for over a month, but I keep forgetting.  Really Bad Eggs had a great observation about hit points in Dungeons & Dragons that informed some of my observations about D&D Next.  I'd say that the slow pace of hit point recovery and the decision to give clerics healing magic with names like "Cure Light Wounds" also had a bad influence on the conception of hit points as physical wounds rather than an abstract reckoning of fatigue, luck, etc.  In my D&D Next game, I'm going to have to try to break this mold by describing hit point loss in terms of parries, fumbles, slips, trips, grazes, near-misses, and the like.  I should put together a list of stock descriptions...
• Dreams in the Lich House has been laying out ideas for a Japanese-style setting with Arthurian themes.  I've been avidly following because a similar premise occurred to me once.  I was going to write a young adult novel about a pseudo-Japan where the Mongol invasion was successful (like the Anglo-Saxons in Britain) and the Japanese people rallied around a young woman claiming to be the lost imperial princess -- only (since I'm an American and I don't believe in divine right) she was actually just a smart, resourceful peasant.  Plus there would be kaiju.
• Welcome to the blogosphere, Sean Patrick Fannon!  There can never be too many Seans writing about Savage Worlds.  (Sorry I haven't downloaded the Shaintar playtest; you know my feelings about Edge bloat.)  
• The Savage Mojo website is back!  Ooh, pretty...
• I use music when role-playing.  Like anyone with a lick of sense, I use film soundtracks and orchestral pieces.  I recently discovered the works of Joaquin Rodrigo, so now I finally have the perfect soundtrack for a Zorro game (all the available Zorro soundtracks stink).