Wizards of the Coast Discoveries

[james_davis_nicoll]

Wizards of the Coast launching new ‘adult fantasy’ imprint

The initial line-up consists of:

Firefly Rain, by Richard Dansky

Last Dragon, by J.M. McDermott

The Man on the Ceiling, by Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem

Devil’s Cape, by Rob Rogers

The Angel of Death in Chicago by J. Robert King

Nicked from Doug Muir

Comments

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

Y'know, "adult fantasy" really has unfortunate connotations.

[t-guy.livejournal.com]

Whichever meaning one might have in mind.

[rosefox]

Adult as in non-YA, or adult as in pr0n?

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

Imagines what WOTC porn would be like. Breaks brain.

I imagine they mean non-YA.

[rosefox]

One can only hope.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

"With my boom shaka boom shaka shaka modifier, that's a twenty! All women within 30 feet of me are seduced!"

[rosefox]

Oh, it's worse than that.

Gangbanger [General, Sex]
You love group sex and excel at it... the more the merrier!
Prerequisite: Staying Power
Benefit: The character gains a +2 competency bonus to Acrobatics and Seduction checks for each sexual partner in addition to the first when engaged in group sex activities. You also gain a +1 bonus for every sex partner (including yourself) to Staying Power Fortitude saves.

Staying Power [General, Sex]
You can keep going all day and all night.
Prerequisite: Sexual Prowess
Benefit: When engaging in sexual activities, you can remain tireless and "turned on" for one hour per Constitution bonus. When you reach the end of the time period, you can roll a Fort save (DC12) to keep going for an additional number of hours equal to your Constitution bonus. The DC for the Fort save increases by +4 for each time beyond the first time it is used in a 24-hour period. Once the Fort save has been failed, the character slips into a deeply satisfying sleep for 1d8+4 hours.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

"If parents really wanted to keep their sons from getting the neighbor girl pregnant, the best thing they could have done was buy them several Dio albums and the AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide." -- Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City.

[rosefox]

My first pregnancy scare was with the guy who introduced me to D&D, so this may only hold for those who like D&D and Dio.

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

I think you need both components to maintain the virginator field. Klosterman was, how to put this, anorgasmic while awake until the age of 20. He writes for Esquire now.

[j-larson.livejournal.com]

This one time, at band camp Gen Con...

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

"I put on my robe and wizard's hat"

[rosefox]

What the f*ck, I told you not to message me again!

[ross-teneyck.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they need a term like "grown-up fantasy" or something.

Back when I used to read the anime newsgroups, every once in a while someone would ask for recommendations for "adult anime." On those occasions when what they actually meant was "not made for kids," hilarity would ensue.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

Isn't publishing endless amounts of crappy fiction what killed TSR in the first place?

[tomscud.livejournal.com]

It also involved some sort of really stupid business decisions, something involving massive amounts of returns from vastly over-printing and shipping something or other.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

As I recall the legends, Random House stopped returning TSR novels for a long time, which gave TSR the false impression that they could print any crap and it would sell. This illusion was shattered when Random House did the return from hell shortly before TSR fell over dead.

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

We don't actually know that these will be bad. GW managed to publish some decent fantasy.

The bad fiction was a significant part of TSR's demise (and the Grand Return of a million dollars worth of dud books was the final blow) but only part. Loraine-era TSR was unusually rich in self-defeating policies, from dumping authors for being too popular with the readers to producing RPG products no sane person would predict a market for.

[phanatic.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget, threatening to sue fans for doing things like playing the game and sharing what they created.

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Rich Dansky was in charge of Wraith:The Oblivion for 2nd edition as well as author of the Holocaust supplement for Wraith. I'll be curious to see what his take on Southern Gothic horror is.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Dear Ghu. And the only two SF books in the SFBC flier that arrived today were Star Wars (bah) and the Hartwell/Cramer 12th Best SF. I ordered the latter, and the scary part is that this flier was set up by Ellen and Andy. Who knows what comes next?

[andrewwheeler.livejournal.com]

Actually, we considered The Number of the Beast, 1634: The Baltic War and Boomsday to be also SF.

(And Soon I Will Be Invincible, in the Altiverse catalog, is at least debatable...)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I prefer to think of the magic, including the stuff the Not-Narnians had, in Soon I Will Be Invincible to be a special case of the weird science found elsewhere in the book. We don't how it works - yet- but only because it has not been properly studied. To me, it's SF.

By properly studied, I mean studied by people not suffering from malign hypercognition syndrome.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

You're right, the first three are SF, but I don't like reading those authors and I skipped right by them. Somehow I don't think Rome is going to buy more SF from authors I like.

I'm afraid...

[seawasp]

... that Mr. McDermott's entry has a title that is already completely taken in my meme space. He cannot replace the power of the Glow!

Re: I'm afraid...

[(Anonymous)]

Lots of books around with "Last" and "Dragon" in the title, too. It's probably going to be rife with Dragonlance and Eragon cliches.

Honestly, you'd think dragons would be wiped out by now since they've been on the brink so very many times.