The Cambias Digression

Notes and thoughts on everything from what I had for breakfast to the fate of the Universe.

  • Random Encounters: Remote Frontier Starport

    Today's Random Encounter Table takes us to a distant star system at the edge of explored space. The spaceport can be either an orbital station or an outpost on the surface of a planet. Because this is the frontier, equipment is patched-together and law enforcement is lax and ad-hoc.  Use this table to generate roleplaying…

    jamescambias

  • Retro-Review: The 8th Annual of the Year’s Best SF (Part 3)

    Picking up where we left off last time, at the halfway mark. "MS. Found in a Bus" by Russell Baker, is a bit of alleged political humor from the New York Times. Baker was a Times columnist from 1962 to 1998. This very short piece is (I think) a satire of espionage thrillers and science…

    jamescambias

  • Island of Lost Games: A Footprint in the Sand!

    Exciting news about one of the first titles I covered in the "Island of Lost Games" series — John Hill, one of the original Droids gaming group, ran across my post and sent this reply: I enjoyed your recent post about the game "Droids", though the circumstances that led me to discover it leave much…

    jamescambias

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  • Random Encounters: Accursed Leng

    Where does the horror-haunted Plateau of Leng lie? In Central Asia? Past the Mountains of Madness in Antarctica? Or is it outside of waking reality altogether, in the dimension of nightmares? The city of sinister temples and forbidden magic draws visitors from all space and time. ENCOUNTERS IN LENG (Roll d20 when moving, d10 when…

    jamescambias

  • Retro-Review: The 8th Annual of the Year’s Best SF (Part 2)

    Picking up where we left off, we reach a milestone: the first story in this anthology — published, let us recall, at the height of the Space Race in 1963 — which actually takes place in outer space. Poul Anderson's "Kings Who Die" is an odd blending of swashbuckling space opera action, Cold War political…

    jamescambias

  • Random Encounters: Post-Apocalyptic Houston

    ENCOUNTERS IN POST-APOCALYPTIC HOUSTON (Roll d20 if the party is moving, d10 if they are staying in one place.) Roll Twice and Combine Plot-Advancing Encounter: Something or someone related to whatever brought the adventurers to Post-Apocalyptic Houston in the first place. (If they're just passing through then this is an adventure hook: someone who knows…

    jamescambias

  • Retro-Review: The 8th Annual of the Year’s Best SF

    I picked up a copy of The 8th Annual of the Year's Best SF in a used bookstore a couple of years ago, and recently re-read it. It was published in 1963, so the stories represent the best of 1962 — at least in the opinion of Judith Merril, the editor. It contains twenty-eight stories,…

    jamescambias

  • Random Encounters: Steampunk Paris

    I'm starting a new feature of the 'blog this week: your Weekly Random Encounters. Each week I'm going to post a new random encounter table for a particular setting. Use these for roleplaying games, story prompts, or as a kind of I Ching to predict your week. I'm also appending the Situation generator to each…

    jamescambias

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  • PhilCon 2017, Featuring MEEE!

    This weekend sees the return of Philadelphia's legendary science fiction convention, PhilCon! And once again I'll be there. If you're anywhere in the mid-Atlantic region, come down to Cherry Hill, New Jersey and join the fun! My schedule for the con: Saturday, November 11, 12:00 noon, Executive Suite 623: Readings. I'll be reading at noon,…

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  • After-Action Report: Basic Dungeons & Dragons at JiffyCon

    (Blogging has been interrupted lately because I bought a new computer and had to spend far more time than I liked getting it set up. That's done, so with luck I can return to my two-or-three-times-a-week schedule.) A couple of weeks ago, on October 28, I attended JiffyCon, a mini game convention held at Smith…

    jamescambias

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