Thursday, April 12, 2007
Vampire Hunting Kits
Random Nonsense
Vampire hunting kits from the 19th century apparently are available for auction at Sothebys.
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Monday, April 09, 2007
Fuzzy 20 Sided Dice
On The Shelves
Let them know you’re a gamer. From Think Geek.
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Friday, April 06, 2007
Copyright Renewal Database
Cheers and Jeers
Stanford University has made available an online database of copyright renewal information. A description of the site from the homepage:
This database makes searchable the copyright renewal records received by the US Copyright Office between 1950 and 1993 for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963. Note that the database includes ONLY US Class A (book) renewals.
The period from 1923-1963 is of special interest for US copyrights, as works published after January 1, 1964 had their copyrights automatically renewed by the 1976 Copyright Act, and works published before 1923 have generally fallen into the public domain. Between those dates, a renewal registration was required to prevent the expiration of copyright, however determining whether a work’s registration has been renewed is a challenge. Renewals received by the Copyright Office after 1977 are searchable in an online database, but renewals received between 1950 and 1977 were announced and distributed only in a semi-annual print publication. The Copyright Office does not have a machine-searchable source for this renewal information, and the only public access is through the card catalog in their DC offices.
In order to make these renewal records more accessible, Stanford has created this searchable database. Building on the work done by Project Gutenberg to transcribe the 1950-1977 renewals, and on early conversion efforts by Michael Lesk, we have converted the published renewal announcements to machine-readable form, and combined them with the renewals for later years made available on the Copyright Office’s website. Note that this database covers only renewals, not original registrations, and is limited to books (Class A registrations) published in the US.
It’s interesting stuff, and I’m sure there are plenty of wargaming related texts whose copyright has expired. An enterprising individual could make some money by making these texts available.
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Friday, April 06, 2007
The Iliad and The Normandy Invasion
Books
At first I thought that someone had made a mistake with the cover of this translation of the Iliad
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Thursday, April 05, 2007
The Tale of the Head of Vecna
Cheers and Jeers
I came across this sad tale of two groups of RPG gamers. It’s quoted verbatum.
Most stupid gamers ever
Subject: Most stupid gamers ever Date: 11 Dec 1996 19:51:02 -0700 Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
In an attempt to get this group’s collective mind off racist Dieties & Demigods, what is Gothism, and old TSR evils, I present a story put up on the Steve Jackson Games WWW site. This story was so funny I almost hurt myself laughing.
An Important Safety Tip!
Mark Steuer recounts this tale:
Many years ago (back when we all were still playing D & D), I ran a game where I pitted two groups against each other.
Several members of Group One came up with the idea of luring Group Two into a trap. You remember the Hand of Vecna and the Eye of Vecna that were artifacts in the old D&D world where if you cut off your hand (or your eye) and replaced it with the Hand of Vecna (or the Eye) you’d get new awesome powers? Well, Group One thought up The Head of Vecna.
Group One spread rumors all over the countryside (even paying Bards to spread the word about this artifact rumored to exist nearby). They even went so far as to get a real head and place it under some weak traps to help with the illusion. Unfortunately, they forgot to let ALL the members of their group in on the secret plan (I suspect it was because they didn’t want the Druid to get caught and tell the enemy about this trap of theirs, or maybe because they didn’t want him messing with things).
The Druid in group One heard about this new artifact and went off in search of it himself (I believe to help prove himself to the party members…) Well, after much trial and tribulation, he found it; deactivated (or set off) all the traps; and took his “prize” off into the woods for examination. He discovered that it did not radiate magic (a well known trait of artifacts) and smiled gleefully.
I wasn’t really worried since he was alone and I knew that there was no way he could CUT HIS OWN HEAD OFF. Alas I was mistaken as the Druid promptly summoned some carnivorous apes and instructed them to use his own scimitar and cut his head off (and of course quickly replacing it with the Head of Vecna…)
Some time later, Group one decided to find the Druid and to check on the trap. They found the headless body (and the two heads) and realized that they had erred in their plan (besides laughing at the character who had played the Druid)...The Head of Vecna still had BOTH eyes! They corrected this mistake and reset their traps and the Head for it’s real intended victims…
Group Two, by this time, had heard of the powerful artifact and decided that it bore investigating since, if true, they could use it to destroy Group One. After much trial and tribulation, they found the resting place of The Head of Vecna! The were particularly impressed with the cunning traps surrounding the site (one almost missed his save against the weakest poison known to man). They recovered the Head and made off to a safe area.
Group Two actually CAME TO BLOWS (several rounds of fighting) against each other argueing over WHO WOULD GET THEIR HEAD CUT OFF! Several greedy players had to be hurt and restrained before it was decided who would be the recipient of the great powers bestowed by the Head… The magician was selected and one of them promptly cut his head off. As the player was lifting The Head of Vecna to emplace it on it’s new body, another argument broke out and they spent several minutes shouting and yelling. Then, finally, they put the Head onto the character.
Well, of course, the Head simply fell off the lifeless body. All members of Group Two began yelling and screaming at each other (and at me) and then, on their own, decided that they had let too much time pass between cutting off the head of a hopeful recipient and put the Head of Vecna onto the body.
SO THEY DID IT AGAIN!... [killing another PC]
In closing, it should be said that I never even cracked a smile as all this was going on. After the second PC was slaughtered, I had to give in (my side was hurting)...
And Group Two blamed ME for all of that…
So let that be a warning to you - don’t let your head get cut off unless you really know what you’re doing.
—Bob Apthorpe
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Sunday, April 01, 2007
Lost Steve Canyon Comic Strips
Cheers and Jeers
My father was a big fan of the newspaper adventure strips like Steve Canyon, Terry and the Pirates, the Phantom (his favorite)and Prince Valiant—and thus, I also came to love them.
Steve Canyon and Terry and the Pirates were produced by Milton Caniff, who produced Steve Canyon for 54 years—right up until his death in 1988. Recently, when looking through his papers, some previously unnoticed strips came to light. If you’re a fan—or if you’ve never heard of Steve Canyon—you owe it to yourself to take a look.
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