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Please Introduce Yourself
Hey everyone, welcome to the Tabletop Roleplayer's Book Club.
This club was founded in 2011 on a small gaming forum called Roludo, then moved to G+ where it grew and thrived. Since it's founding, we've read a total of 71 books! With the closing of G+ we've created a new home, here in our own space, and we'd love to have you join us in reading and chatting about the kinds of books that inspire us all to game. Not every member is an active RPG gamer, and you don't need to be either. Deep down, though, all readers of fiction are roleplayers aren't they? We all pictures ourselves beside those characters, sharing their adventure in imaginative settings.
I was known as Apocryphal Chris on G+, but since I'm against use of underscores in online names in the new millennium (they're so '80s) I'm now just Apocryphal. I've been here since the beginning when someone (it was Mount Zion Ryan) said "Hey, I should read the Silmarillion" and a bunch of other people (including me, and Clash, and Ray, and I think Barner, too) said "Yeah, me too!". That was our first book, and it's been a great ride since then.
My reading interests include social Sci-fi, Historical Fiction, Adventure Fiction, and occasionally Fantasy. I also like non-fiction such as Ancient History and Travel Literature - especially old travelogues, which I think are just loaded with gaming potential. My favourite games are traditional in style and generally have great, creative settings in which I can immerse myself: RuneQuest, Tekumel, and Ars Magica to name a few. Both reading and gaming are excuses for me to explore the worlds of the past, the future, and the imagination. Why do you read?
By the way, if you're on GoodReads, you can find me there too:
https://goodreads.com/user/show/75662586-apocryphal
Comments
Hello, I'm Mischa.
I think I first became aware of the Tabletop Roleplayers' Book Club at The Forever War back in January of 2016. I recall seeing the book come up in my Google Plus feed and I said, "Hey, I've read that. Let's read it again!" and the rest is history. Now I'm running the server that powers this forum.
I'm a gamer, father, foodie, didgeridoo player, geek, husband, game designer, native New Orleanian, and reader. Not in that order.
Book-wise, I love sci-fi, particularly hard sci-fi, post-apocalyptic fiction, classic sci-fi, cyberpunk, and alternate history. Fantasy is a much harder sell for me- I do like urban fantasy (Dresden, Harry Potter, Name of the Wind, Baru Comorant), but high fantasy is really not my cup of tea and I don't care for Tolkien. I'm also super down for horror.
Game-wise, I don't play enough- but take my book preferences and plop those into roleplaying and you're good. I much prefer hippie/indie/narrative games to trad/OSR stuff, but I dearly love setting-heavy games like Deadlands, In Nomine, Over The Edge, and 7th Sea. I wish I were a better GM!
My mom often says, "I go to the library because I can't support my book habit." and that's me right there. When my wife and I go to the bookstore, we set a limit of 'no more than you can carry' which serves fairly decently. Practically speaking, what this means for you is that I'm generally only reading Book Club selections that I can get in the library unless I know know I'm going to love love it.
hi guys, i am svebor from g+.
i love fantasy and historical adventures (i mean i also love and read "serious" literature but unless we start reading bolano or volodine it won't matter). i am also a DCC (dungeon crawl classics) judge and i am coming from the cyclopedia/TSR paperbacks/SSI goldbox line of thinking about games.
Hi! I am clash.
Clash the Mocker. Ex-member of Mott the Hoople.
I'm Paul Mitchener. I've been with the club for about half of its life, which makes me feel old, since I could swear it's only been a couple of months since I joined in, but we've read quite a few things together since then, and some of them have been rather good. I like the club when it gives me an excuse to read things I'm interested in, and when it stretches me, pushing me to read something I wouldn't normally.
I'm an academic and live in a geometrically precise ivory tower, though the ivory is ethically sourced, and comes from Platonic elephants rather than actual animals.
When it comes to reading, I'm not that self-analytical in my desires and tastes. I do know that reading is a major and important part of my life. Key genres at the moment include SF of various sorts and historical fiction, with some dabbling in urban fantasy and horror. There are fantasy authors I adore, but they're very much the exception rather than the rule, and each of my personal greats are almost genres in their own right.
In terms of RPGs, in terms of system I play a lot of Fate, Gumshoe, and d100 games. I'm generally in love with setting over system, but love it even more when system supports setting. I'm still in deep with the One Ring, like Star-Trek style and hard SF, and view historical fantasy as the queen of RPG genres, but it's not my only love. Folkloric fantasy is another strand. My tastes are broad, but not universal or consistent. I've also written a few things, self-published or for other people.
I didn't lie!
Altogether now... All the Young Dudes, Carry the News...
Hi. I like to read (obviously). I'm originally from the midwest (east central Indiana), now living in San Diego, California. I used to work for a university as an instructor for the Honors College; I taught composition and humanities. I have a BFA in Drawing and a Ph.D. in English Composition and Rhetoric, so naturally I'm now the president of a software company and set the direction for all of our applications. LOL. (It all relates, sort of, but it's a long story.) Anyway, I draw, read, write, design games ... oh yeah ... role-playing games. I love them and have been playing them since 77. Also board games, which I have been playing since my chubby little baby arm could hold and throw a die. Back to reading, though, I mostly read genre fiction: SF, Fantasy, Horror, Spy/Detective, etc. I also like animal related stories a lot; one of my favorite series is the James Herriot books. Honestly, I love classic literature and will return to it now and then, but after 8+ years of "serious" college reading and another decade of teaching it, I don't feel compelled to prove anything anymore.
I’m a writer of RPG reviews and prose, but in recent years my reading has slowed down. I’m fast but sporadic in my reading, often distracted by the internet and a Marvel Unlimited subscription.
I joined this community for the Lord of the Rings Slow Read and will hopefully keep up with some of the monthly reads here.
Welcome, Charlie. We've created a forum in which to post RPG reviews. Please feel free to post in it. I plan to as well.
Great to see you, @night_arrant!
Hey, guys! This is Kirt Dankmyer! I joined the club originally on G+.
I'm a pretty omnivorous reader, but I don't have the time I used to. I both write and play RPGs.
Ewige Blumenkraft!
Hello everyone, Marc C here.
I've been a polygamer since 1981, which means I regularly play rpgs, board games, card games and wargames... and I've been reading genre literature for as long.
While my participation has been on and off for the last few years I regularly check in to see what the club is reading.
Willing to give this new forum format a try.
Hello! I was RobertFreemanDay at G+ but my handle has typically been this. The handle comes from this song:
I think I really have not read as much as I would like; hence why I joined the group when it was at G+
I hope this will get me going to reading more.
Hello, everyone!
@PresGas If you want to nominate the next book for the club, that gives you a great excuse to read something.
Nice to see you again, @MARCC .
@xiombarg , the Queen of Swords! We've been talking about doing a Moorcock soon.
Welcome again, @PresGas.
Hi all,
I'm David Miller, coming over from G+. I joined the group over there two or three years ago. I think the first book I read with the group was Day of the Triffids, so however long ago that was. I've been reading science fiction since grade school in the early 70s. After I read every juvenile sf title my local library had, they let me, with my mother's permission, check out science fiction books from the "adult" section, and there I discovered Asimov and Clarke, whose ideas set my mind on fire, even if their dialogue, characterization, world-building, and attitude toward women left a lot to be desired. Dune was the remedy for that, which I read in high school; ideas plus all of the rest!
I started roleplaying in 1980, my first semester of college. My roommate came back from a meeting of the Society for Creative Anachronsim with a boring story about playing a game as a thief in some fantasy setting. Yawn (at the time.) At that point I hadn't read much if any fantasy and wasn't really inserted. Then he came back from one of the meetings with a rule book for Traveler; you know, the scifi rog where you could die during character creation. I was dazzled immediately. And later learned to enjoy D&D and other fantasy systems. While I may have been a rules lawyer as a young man, my favorite rpg's now are story-forward. I particularly enjoy playing and running games that are Powered by the Apocalypse.
I do read fantasy now. Although I didn't follow the group's recent slow read, it did prompt me to re-read the granddaddy of fantasy on my own, and I found that I enjoyed it this time around quite a bit more than when I had read it the first time in my early 20s.
Although I don't jump into the conversation, I did read Invisible Cities with you all. I kept thinking about structuralism, post-structuralism, and deconstruction as I read it, but I'm slammed at work and never really had time to put my thoughts on that into any coherent arrangement. Sign/signifier/signified.
Nice to be over here. Thanks for setting things up here.
Hey Kirt! Great to see you here! I haven't seen the xiombarg nick in a long time!
Ewige Schlangecraft!
Like the overly-literal username says, I'm Michael S. Miller. I joined the book club on G+ several years ago, about the time when I shifted my focus from designing and publishing story-focused indie RPGs like FVLMINATA, With Great Power, and Serial Homicide Unit to writing sword-and-sorcery fiction (a habit inspired by the great RPG Swords Without Master). I don't get to read or play as much as I would like, but try to keep up with a handful of the group's picks each year. I also run the Indie Games eXplosion events at the DEXCON and DREAMATION game conventions in New Jersey each February and July.
Also, I'm a professional typographer. If I do my job properly, you will never notice the beautiful uniformity that I struggle to bring to the pages of your book!
Somehow I'd never made the connection that you were RPG-famous before you turned to fiction.
I'm not even Indie RPG famous, despite writing more games than should be decently possible...
You're totally famous. I can't believe I'm friends with the clash bowley.
In all seriousness, I knew about some of your games before I knew you.
Wow! I think that is a first!
I just realised I never introduced myself... like Michael S Miller I haven't attempted to find a cool name, and by and large go by the same name everywhere.
Geographically I have just moved from London to Grasmere, Cumbria, and am currently trying to grown webbed feet in order to get around (Storm Diana has been entertaining us for about 3 days as I write this).
I used to play RPGs a fair bit in my youth (which is a considerable number of years ago) and nowadays am more likely to be found at a board game.
I do a fair bit of reading - mostly science fiction and fantasy these days, though at one stage it was historical fiction all the way, and I still dip in to that occasionally. I'm kind of fussy with fantasy but if I like a book I tend to really like it. Don't like too much blood and gore in any genre.
I also write (indie) and am currently in science fiction mode (near-future, interested in human-AI interactions rather than space opera). I'm behind schedule with my next book but never liked schedules anyway...
Groupwise I think I joined in mid 2016 or so. If I like a book I tend to post up pictures of places that resonate for me with it.
I'm 9 months pregnant, so suspect it'll take me a little while to start making real contributions here, but I loved the sound of the community and wanted to join while I still had enough brain to do so!
Great to have you, @Feral_Ink - best of luck with the baby!
I'm Lawrence Whitaker, often known as Loz, and reasonably active in the RPG community having worked with Chaosium and Mongoose on a couple of projects, and more recently as one half of The Design Mechanism (TDM), the company publishing the Mythras RPG. TDM also has the rights to publish the 'Lyonesse' RPG, which should see light during 2019.
I know Apocryphal via gaming in Toronto, and the two of us have spent many happy hours exploring Mythic Britain and lots of other realms. He suggested I join here for the Lyonesse discussion, and I may well hang around.
Paul Mitchener has also done some work for TDM too, so also know him. My, it's a small world, isn't it?