Dungeons and Dragons

The relationship between an elemental patron and a mortal agent is different from that between an astral god and a mortal worshiper. The gods are banished from the world, as are their primordial counterparts, thanks to the efforts of the primal spirits. Gods are distant, enigmatic and unfathomable. Primordials, despite their power, are yet more inscrutable, inca pable of coherent thought beyond what is demanded of their nature. They are fundamental forces of the cosmos, not entities that can be reasoned with.

If you're not yet familiar with D&D Lair Assault, you’ll need to steel yourself for the challenge.

Interviews and Profiles

• Chuck Wendig interviews Martha Wells.
• Book Banter interviews Justin Golenbock.
• Far Beyond Reality interviews Bradley Beaulieu and Stephen Gaskell.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Matt Ruff.
• [SFFWRTCHT] A Chat With Author & Editor David Lee Summers.
• Suvudu (Matt Staggs) interviews Adrian Bejan.
• Suvudu (Fictional Frontiers) interviews Joe Schreiber (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Writers, Venture Capitalists, & Barnum. Oh, My.
• Tansy Rayner Roberts on Fabulous Graphic Novels For People Who Hate Superheroes.
• Jay Lake on Rewriting to editorial response.

News

• Strange Chemistry signs Jonathan L. Howard.
• Coming in 2013 from Orbit: The Shambling Guide to NYC.
• The Magicians show was not greenlit.
• ChiZine signs distribution deal with HarperCollinsCanada.
• Author Kevin J. Anderson to write novelization of Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album.

An A–Z of the Fantastic City by Hal Duncan

Interviews and Profiles

• Chuck Wendig interviews Martha Wells.
• Book Banter interviews Justin Golenbock.
• Far Beyond Reality interviews Bradley Beaulieu and Stephen Gaskell.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Matt Ruff.
• [SFFWRTCHT] A Chat With Author & Editor David Lee Summers.
• Suvudu (Matt Staggs) interviews Adrian Bejan.
• Suvudu (Fictional Frontiers) interviews Joe Schreiber (podcast).

Advice/Articles

• Kristine Kathryn Rusch on The Business Rusch: Writers, Venture Capitalists, & Barnum. Oh, My.
• Tansy Rayner Roberts on Fabulous Graphic Novels For People Who Hate Superheroes.
• Jay Lake on Rewriting to editorial response.

News

• Strange Chemistry signs Jonathan L. Howard.
• Coming in 2013 from Orbit: The Shambling Guide to NYC.
• The Magicians show was not greenlit.
• ChiZine signs distribution deal with HarperCollinsCanada.
• Author Kevin J. Anderson to write novelization of Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album.

An A–Z of the Fantastic City by Hal Duncan

V&A Steamworks has added a photo to the pool:

This LEGO MOC was inspired by an awesome illustration by Patrick Spens titled 'Red Summer Skies'

I’ve been playing video games most of my life. I could say that I’ve enjoyed most of the games I’ve played. But I’ve always felt a bit disconnected after starting a game. Even though I enjoy nearly every aspect of a game, there’s almost always a feeling that something is missing. While I thought on this, I realized what was missing: I don’t care about the characters.

Nearly every game I’ve played I haven’t felt a connection to any characters. At first, I thought this was the fact that in the back of my mind, I was aware they weren’t real. But that wasn’t it; I have no problem connecting with T.V., book, or comic/manga characters.

It still gets me...

Yet, game characters, never. My Pokémon can die, and then I’m simply upset if they were near leveling up or evolving. Because that’s more work. The Little Sisters in Bioshock? Sure, I saved them, but that’s because in the end, you earn more from saving them than killing them. So it served me better. I dislike having to go through protect missions, because the A.I. gets killed easily and that spoils my fun. So I began wondering: am I heartless? Is it because there aren’t enough gingers in games or characters I look at and think, “Sure, they’re like me,” in their personalities, beliefs, or goals?

He gives me hope that soon the jokes will end and the healing will begin.

After I thought back through countless games in my repertoire, I found one character that I actually developed an emotional connection with. All because of two words.

So here, one of the guidelines for spoilers is that it has to be five years before you can go on without a Spoiler Warning. So for anyone who hasn’t played Portal 2, you’ve been warned.

Last chance to go to another wonderful article on the site. You've been warned.

So…3,2,1…Spoiler!

This Turret.

So yeah, once you’ve fallen deep down in Aperture Labs. Getting ready to take out GLaDOS and replace her with Wheatley to ensure your escape. As you find yourself surrounded by incinerators, you find one little turret on the conveyor.

Yep, this little turret, better known as the Oracle Turret, broke my heart, all from two words it says. “I’m different.”

Of course you can live

And that got me. I originally planned on just leaving him. It’s a turret. They’ve shot at me since way back in the first game. At the time, I was unaware that saving Oracle would get me any sort of achievement. And once I saw I had earned one, it mattered more to me to make sure that Oracle was safe. If you’re wondering what made me decide to save it, here goes. A turret, a machine whose partners have lent me their fair share of bullets in the past, was able to pull a Grinch three-size-increase on my heart? Like I said, it’s all because of what it said. “I’m different.” That’s something I can understand. Everyone can. We’ve all had those moments where we’ve felt different. That time you were dragged somewhere by a friend and you don’t know anyone, the family party where there’s nobody you can have an actual conversation with about something you care about. It’s not easy to feel so distant when you’re in a crowd. I’ve had that feeling. So when I stumbled on something that admits that feeling I’ve felt and I know others have, too, that’s something I can connect to in a game. Once I made that connection with Oracle, my experience in the game grew and my gameplay felt deeper.

Only in fanfics...

I don’t expect every game to have some little oddball that makes me think “I identify with them,” but I like seeing a character with a unique appeal to them. Someone that doesn’t quite fit into the normal molds that we’re so used to in games and makes you think and take notice. I know I’ll never be the macho man, suave assassin, or eye-catching female lead.

But Portal 2, you made me care a little more about you. Even now, I look back to the Oracle Turret I left guarding one of the hallways in the Aperture basement, and I’m glad to know he’s safe.

Here are some quick tricks to “tune up” your hand-drawn maps and impress your players.

A wealthy Sembian merchant has been buying fine furnishings for his newly built country mansion. Among them, he picked up many large old paintings at auction from the homes of fellow Sembians who had fallen on hard times or died. Whenever moonlight touches one such painting, strange monsters emerge from it. Is it a portal? If so, to where? Where did it come from? Who made it, and why? And why have attempts to destroy it had such deadly consequences?

It’s been a while, so I figured I’d fire up the ‘ol League of Legends review generator.  I have the pleasure of introducing to you: Sejuani, The Winter’s Wrath.

Yeah, she likes to ride alright. Giggity.

To begin, I gotta say, I’m in the middle of the road with this champ.  Before I say more, though, let me enlighten those of you who don’t know what she does.

Sejuani’s Passive: Frost: Sejuani’s basic attacks apply frost, reducing enemy movement speed by 10% for 3 seconds.  Not much to say here, other than hory shet slowing machine.  She just has to get to her target first.  Good thing she doesn’t have a charge or anything.  Speaking which…

Q: Arctic Assault: Sejuani charges forward, dealing 60/90/130/170/210 (+40% of ability power) magic damage and applying frost to enemies. Sejuani stops upon colliding with an enemy champion.  Range 700, Cooldown 19/17/15/13/11 seconds, Cost 70/80/90/100/110 mana.

Oh look, a gap closer.  Well, gg to whomever you hit with this.  Melee champs without a gap closer often find themselves at a slight disadvantage in the laning phase or ganking from the jungle, but Sejuani solves this quite nicely, especially paired with her passive.  And yes, it can go through terrain.  Look at that.  An escape mechanic!  Yay!

W: Northern Winds: Sejuani summons an arctic storm around her for 5 seconds, dealing magic 12/18/24/30/36 +(10% of ability power) + ( 1/1.25/1.5/1.75/2% of maximum health) damage each second to nearby enemies.
Damage is increased by 50% against enemies affected by frost or Permafrost.  Cost 40 mana, cooldown 10 seconds.

Good for extra damage when chasing down enemies, and great for clearing the jungle quick.  Though as much as I do like it, I kinda wish it was something else, just because this is almost exactly like Shyvana’s W.  A change of pace would have been nice.

E: Permafrost: Sejuani converts frost on nearby enemies to Permafrost, dealing 60/110/160/210/260 +(50% of ability power) as magic damage and increasing the movement speed reduction by 30/40/50/60/70 % for 3 seconds.  Cost 55 mana, cooldown 11 seconds.  THIS is why sejuani is a walking slow machine.  Go jungle sejuani, gank with q, auto attack a couple times, wait for the enemy to flash away, and, oh look, pop E and they’re moving slower than molasses on Sejuani (get it?  Winter?  Winter’s Wrath?  Gaah, I just can’t connect to kids these days…).  Which, should conveniently give your ally the time they need to get close enough to blow the enemy away.

R: Glacial Prison: Sejuani throws her weapon, stunning the first enemy champion hit for 2 seconds and all other nearby enemies for 1 second. All affected targets take 150/250/350 +(80% of ability power) as magic damage and are affected by frost.  Cost 100 mana, cooldown 150/130/10 seconds, range 1150.  Not too bad, not too great.  I mean, for as much cc as sejuani does have, this does cap her off nicely.  Damage isn’t great, but I see Sejuani’s role on a team more of a support, anyways, so this is great/amazing for a support ult.  And the area of effect is pretty decent, specially for team fights.  Though I think what makes this a great ultimate is the synergy with her other abilities.

All in all, her abilities are quite a nice package.  Synergy between them is great, and I can see her either supporting bottom or jungling.  I did have the experience of playing a game with a good sejuani jungle once (I was ziggs…just wait for my review on HIM!!  Gahaha!), and her ganks, if coordinated right, are pretty stellar.  That, and he’s used to playing in the 1400+ ELOs anyways, so.  That may help.

I think if she is found on a team, it should be in the jungle.  I’d be careful picking her to jungle, though.  Don’t pick her too early, she can be counter jungled pretty easily, considering her damage output isn’t great.  Yeah, she’ll probably live long enough for a teammate to get there to help, but I mean, I just wouldn’t pick her to jungle unless you need that tanky support champ and she’s one of your last picks.  Her team fighting potential is great, though.  I mean, let’s compare her to some champs that have some similar abilities.  Her ultimate, for instance.  Amumu has a similar ultimate, and so does Leona.  They’re both tanky, and they can both potentially jungle, so let’s compare.  Leona’s ultimate hits about the same radius, if not a little smaller, and stuns the center target, and slows everyone around it.  Same damage with the same ability power ratio, costs incrementally more mana, but on a lower cooldown.  And amumu’s is…well, ‘special’ (damn emo kids).  His has a radius is decently small, but snare/stuns his targets.  Well, let’s just say he emo’s them to stillness.  Emo.  You can’t interrupt a cast with it, but they can’t move or auto attack for a time, two seconds to be exact.  Same damage, but a 100% ability power ratio, and he needs to be in the center of a team fight to make full use of it.  Which, isn’t too hard for amumu.  Sejuani, you get to throw it into the distance, get that nice stun on everyone.  And then, once the 1-2 second stun wears off, pop your E, and everyone gets a 70% slow, on top of that team stun.  Pretty damn nice for me, even compared to those other two abilities.

If you’re jungling, there’s a pretty specific skill order early game, and then it goes back to the priority list.  Priority is as follows: R > E > Q > W.  Although, like I said, if you’re jungling, you’re going to want to grab a second level of W before starting to grab E, just to make your jungle clears quicker.  Build wise, I take her into the tanky stuff, and the gp5 items; Heart of Gold, philo stone, merc treads.  I do like the new item on her, Locket of the Iron Soldari, or whosyourmama.  Masteries are almost always twenty one into the defense tree, and the other nine are truly based on what/who you’re going up against.  Other than that, try to feed your carries kills, and you’ll definitely ride your way into victory!

Interviews and Profiles

• Gollancz interviews Kit Berry.
• The Fuctional Nerds interviews Chuck Wendig and Daniel Polansky (podcast).
• Rick Novy interviews Nancy Fulda.
• Galactic Suburbia Podcast Episode 53.
• I Should Be Writing interviews Jeff VanderMeer (podcast).
• Wired/Geek's Guide to the Galaxy interviews William Gibson (podcast).
• Omnivoracious (Jeff VanderMeer) interviews Ayize Jama-Everett.

Advice/Articles

• The King of Elfland's Second Cousin on The Aesthetics, Structure, and Themes of Noir Speculative Fiction.
• Lavie Tidhar on Epic Fantasy - The Twitter Panel.
• Rachelle Gardner on To Champion Worthwhile Books.
• Janice Hardy on You Must Be This Long to Ride This Genre: What to Do When Your Novel's Too Short.
• Juliette Wade on Deep Worldbuilding and POV Scene Preparation: an in-depth example.
• Shimmer Five Authors + Five Questions : Typical.
• Inkpunks (John Remy) on Voices of Insecurity.

News

• Shared Worlds Critter Map: Unique SF/F Teen Writing Camp Registration and Fund Drive!
• Burstein Considers Congress.
• Author D&D trailer.
• Lemony Snicket to Return in 4-Book Series.

Goblin Fruit Winter 2012

Since the dawn of time, the princes of elemental evil have ruled over the swirling chaos of creation. Two of the princes of elemental evil, Ogrémoch and Imix, are fully described in Monster Manual 3. This article covers two more of the group in detail: Olhydra, the elemental princess of water, and Yan- C-Bin, the elemental prince of air.

What is elemental power and how do player characters use it? These questions confronted me last winter at D&D Experience and would drive my work in the upcoming Player's Option: Heroes of the Elemental Chaos.

Signal-boosting Worldbuilders.

Interviews and Profiles

• Tor.com (Peter Orullian) interviews Robin Hobb.
• Clarion Blog (Adam Israel) interviews Ted Chiang.
• Dead Robots Society interviews Myke Cole and Van Allen Plexico (podcast).
• Reddit interviews R.A. Salvatore.
• Lightspeed Magazine (Andrew Liptak) interviews Keith Brooke.
• Adrienne Kress interviews Professor Elemental.
• John Scalzi's The Big Idea: Saladin Ahmed.
• The New Yorker (Deborah Treisman) interviews Michael Chabon.
• Gollancz interviews Jacqueline Carey.

Advice/Articles

• Bryan Thomas Schmidt (Patty Jansen) on Writer Confidence - Too Much or Too Little?
• Stroppy Author on All hyped out - the push-me-pull-you of book promotion.
• Fantasy Matters (Saladin Ahmed) on Heroic Fantasy and Throne of the Crescent Moon.
• Chuck Wendig on 25 Reasons That Writers Are Bug-Fuck Nuts.
• Seanan McGuire on Because people have asked: Where To Buy My New Book.
• Charles Stross (Cat Valente) on #shitsiskosays.
• Torque Control on Lavinia, Part 3: Science Fiction?
• The Intern on tell a dream, lose a reader...but why?
• The Outer Alliance (T. C. Mill) on A Spell of Passion or Fear.

News

• Buy Under the Moons of Mars, Get a Free Issue of Lightspeed.
• New issue of Hyperpulp.

 Under the Moons of Mars edited by John Joseph Adams

Joseph Wu Origami has added a photo to the pool:

Yet further refinements to this design.

8one6 has added a photo to the pool:

"That counts as a 6 right?"
"Yes," I said, "Yes it does!"

DM Magic has added a photo to the pool:

In the end, Asher saved his comrades, Indomitability was defeated, the fire was extinguished, and the elves were saved.

All in a day's work.

DM Magic has added a photo to the pool:

Yay! My wooden holders are being used!

DM Magic has added a photo to the pool:

Indomitability—a Trillith from the Far Realm—takes his revenge on the PC's.

DM Magic has added a photo to the pool:

Beer.... Delicious beer...

DM Magic has added a photo to the pool:

Once again, a reminder of what's at stake.