The Cambias Digression

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

  • Random Encounters: City of Supers

    Almost every superhero has a home town. Whether it's Batman's Gotham City, Superman's Metropolis, or Marvel Comics's shared New York City, it's the place where the heroes live in their secret identities, where their non-super friends live, and the place which keeps getting attacked by villains. ENCOUNTERS IN THE CITY OF SUPERS Roll 1d20 if…

    jamescambias

  • Random Encounters: Decadent Venice

    The Most Serene Republic of Venice was a major player in Mediterranean trade and politics for at least nine hundred years, but in the 17th century the city's power went into a terminal decline. It went from being a commerical and naval power to being a tourist destination. Foreigners came to enjoy the Carnival season,…

    jamescambias

  • R-E-S-P-E-C-T

    I saw The Last Jedi the weekend it came out, and I've been thinking about it and discussing it with my family (especially my son) sporadically since then. I'm not going to write a review; suffice to say that I give it a B and leave it at that. Nor am I going to reel…

    jamescambias

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  • Counting Down

    Once again, it's time to link to the greatest Christmas Web site ever. I refer, of course, to the NORAD Santa Tracker. As I write this, their countdown stands at 6 hours and 41 minutes. The tracking begins at 6:00 a.m. GMT, which is when the sun is setting in New Zealand and the Pacific,…

    jamescambias

  • Random Encounters: The Bar Outside Area 51

    It's a tumbledown roadhouse on a desert highway, no cute signs, no come-ons for tourists. Inside it's shabby but comfortable. The customers are mostly crewcut types with sunglasses. But the photos on the walls include shots that can't be anywhere in the Solar System. This is the bar where the people who Know The Secrets…

    jamescambias

  • Pulp Trek!

    I've noticed that discussions of Star Trek — especially as it enters its second half-century — focus on its "cerebral" nature, and how it addressed social problems and moral dilemmas related to real-world politics. That may well be true, but I think there's an even more important component of Star Trek's DNA which goes unrecognized.…

    jamescambias

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  • Random Encounters: The Cloud Island

    Cloud Island is a mile-wide mass of solid cloud, shaped rather like an egg. It was settled long ago and is currently ruled by a Cloud Giant sorcerer. The island serves as a free port and marketplace for ships and creatures that sail the sky or venture through the ether. ENCOUNTERS ON THE CLOUD ISLAND…

    jamescambias

  • Retro-Review: The 8th Annual of Year’s Best SF (Part 4)

    We're on the final stretch now in our read-through of Judith Merril's 8th Annual of the Year's Best SF, covering stories published in 1962. The 26th story in the collection is Zenna Henderson's "Subcommittee," about the budding friendship between a human child and a young alien while the adults are conducting a tense peace conference.…

    jamescambias

  • 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

The Worldbuilding Index