The Cambias Digression

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

  • Blogs I Read

    Since I have twice this year had spikes in my blog traffic due to other people mentioning it on their blogs or on Twitter, I think it's time to do the same with my own mighty horde of followers. Here are the blogs I regularly read — with some important exceptions. I'm leaving off purely political…

    jamescambias

  • Inoculating Against Woo

    A while back I posted a little joke about why Marty McFly's father George, in the movie Back to the Future, is the worst science fiction writer ever. One of my complaints was that George couldn't bring himself to publish his stories until a midnight encounter with a fake "spaceman" convinced him it was all…

    jamescambias

    , ,

  • Movie Review: Arrival

    Short version: it's great, go see it. Long version: I confess I was a bit worried when I got tickets to this movie. When I heard that Ted Chiang's great story "The Story of Your Life" was being made into a film I was very pleased and excited . . . but then I saw the…

    jamescambias

    ,

  • Nostalgie Du Geek: Hearing the Call

    In a couple of earlier posts I've described my reaction to my first two role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons and Traveller. Those two were followed in the marketplace by a whole wave of other games in a variety of genres: Tunnels & Trolls, Universe from SPI, Gamma World, Chivalry & Sorcery, Metamorphosis Alpha, RuneQuest, Villains…

    jamescambias

    ,

  • PhilCon 2016, Featuring ME!

    This weekend I'll be attending the venerable PhilCon science fiction convention, at the Crowne Plaza hotel in scenic Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Here's my schedule of events: Friday, November 18, 8:00 p.m., Plaza III: Utopias That Make Us Cringe — I'll be moderating a panel on utopian societies in science fiction that don't actually seem very…

    jamescambias

    , , ,

  • Movie Magic

    Last weekend the family went out to see Dr. Strange, the latest Marvel Comics movie. This one is the origin story for Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and master of the mystic arts. It was entertaining and visually wonderful. It did get me thinking (uh-oh) about how magic is depicted in most modern films — and…

    jamescambias

    , , ,

  • Game Mechanics (Part 2): Why They Don’t Matter

    In my last post on the subject, I wrote about how important it is for game mechanics to replicate the reality of whatever the game is about. And then I left on a cliffhanger by saying that isn't actually true. It's not true because games depend on the players. A game is not a novel or…

    jamescambias

    , , ,

  • Biology of the Body Snatchers

    (Note to everyone who is still sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for the promised follow-up to my last post: be patient. It's Halloween today so I'm doing a Halloween post.) This past weekend I took my son to see the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) at Amherst Cinema. It was extremely…

    jamescambias

    ,

  • Game Mechanics (Part 1): Why They Matter

    When I'm not writing science fiction I write roleplaying games, and I've also designed a couple of card games. As a result, I think about game rules more than most people. Most games have simple, highly artificial mechanics. You have to assemble a certain set of cards, or eliminate your opponent's pieces by moving your…

    jamescambias

  • The Worst Science Fiction Writer Ever

    The time has come to talk about the worst science fiction writer in the history of the field. I'm not talking about any obscure pulp-era hacks, or nameless amateurs chronicling the exploits of Ensign Mary Sue. I'm talking about a writer whose ineptitude has been splashed across movie screens for everyone to see. George McFly,…

    jamescambias

    ,

The Worldbuilding Index