Thoul's Paradise

Actually the charts on the screen are copy of inse...

2026-08-03T12:27:37.092-04:00

Actually the charts on the screen are copy of insert charts in expanded rule book for alpha dawn if you have the original rule book and not the pdf

I sold off my copy many years ago, but I'm hap...

2026-04-06T22:22:15.453-04:00

I sold off my copy many years ago, but I'm happy I owned it, nigh-unplayable though it was. My curiosity about how gonzo it really was would likely have driven me mad if I hadn't seen it first-hand, but having satisfied that itch there wasn't enough appeal to want to keep it.

I loved this game with a passion, and still regret...

2026-04-06T22:16:31.947-04:00

I loved this game with a passion, and still regret the loss of my books (all two of them, and a couple of magazines with adventures for Pandemonium) to an apartment fire in the early 2000s. Bugs the heck out of me that Atlas staunchly refuses to do a reprint or at least offer it in pdf form. It's up there with Nexus: the Infinite city in terms of games I owned, lost in some disaster, and would buy again in a heartbeat if I had the chance.

It definitely does feel like Costikyan was trying ...

2026-03-10T00:43:49.265-04:00

It definitely does feel like Costikyan was trying to write his own "fantasy wargame with a uniquely memorable setting" in the same vein as Dragon Pass, Divine Right, Swords & Sorcery, or (in smaller formats) Demonlord or (in the science fiction genre) Revolt On Antares or Bloodtree Rebellion. I don't think it succeeds as well as any of those, but credit for making the attempt. Those sort of memorable games are few and far between, and often seem to happen as much by accident as intent - which might be why Dread Emperor doesn't quite click, it feels a bit too deliberate.

The fact that it doesn't support multiplayer (something about half of those others I named) probably doesn't help either, since it limited the player base even back when it was new and makes it a very hard sell to a modern 2026 crowd. Some of the appeal to this style of game is shared nostalgia, and late-era AvHill games that didn't sell all that well don't have as much of that as older stuff. Even Magic Realm probably feels more "alive" to old grogs than Dread Empire.

Even 15 years after this blog post went up, it'...

2026-03-10T00:16:50.440-04:00

Even 15 years after this blog post went up, it's worth noting that "Priddo" is an obvious, uncredited, and thinly-veiled knockoff of the setting of Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy stories. Moldvay expanded on it a bit (and not always in a good way) but it's no more his original work than Ulro or the Nine Worlds are.

IME, Hero/Champions works because it's fairly ...

2026-02-27T23:39:16.160-05:00

IME, Hero/Champions works because it's fairly consistent about what X number of points gets you in terms of performance. Space Opera fails because the system is a rather incoherent jumble of barely-related subsystems and exceptions.

There's a dead or dying Mertun on the cover of...

2026-02-27T22:55:55.172-05:00

There's a dead or dying Mertun on the cover of the Space Marine rulebook - you sure that wasn't a Gene Day piece? Solid piece of art, whoever did it.

You've got the cart before the horse trying to accuse Space Opera of cribbing from Masters of Orion. It was the other way around, with the PC game designers having been given permission to use a number of elements from the RPG, including the Klackons and Blarads.

Lovely bit of Jeff Dee art there for the CULT. I ...

2026-02-27T22:49:41.996-05:00

Lovely bit of Jeff Dee art there for the CULT. I have a nagging memory of seeing them (or something with the a very similar mechanical telepathy link that produces wonky behavior now and then) appear someplace else way back in the day - maybe an article about alien species for Traveller in The Space Gamer?

Well, at least it's got some decent art. Sham...

2026-02-27T22:37:10.758-05:00

Well, at least it's got some decent art. Shame it's wasted on this thing.

He's dead, Jim.

2026-02-12T20:10:43.962-05:00

He's dead, Jim.

Thank you for your comments. Alas, I can only ref...

2025-12-18T21:04:47.848-05:00

Thank you for your comments. Alas, I can only reference what is published, not Hargreaves' intent.

I don't think this is how we used spells - and...

2025-12-14T23:40:25.922-05:00

I don't think this is how we used spells - and I gamed with David Hargreaves often. We often would cast the same spells over and over - say mystic darts, so I don't think this really made sense. It may have been something in Arduin Adventure, but it was not something that was common / or is directly said in the Arduin Grimoire or Arduin / Bloody Arduin But that may have been something that David let 'The Willits Wild Boys do".

Your wish is Zorin's command.

2025-07-21T00:38:56.241-04:00

Your wish is Zorin's command.

Too bad he succumbed to mental illness, but at lea...

2025-02-27T16:20:49.530-05:00

Too bad he succumbed to mental illness, but at least it is treatable. Hopefully he did not mutilate his body, or isn’t taking hormones which significantly raise risk of stroke and heart attack in men. I hope he still gets his prostrate checked, very important at his age.

This sounds like an intriguing premise for a game....

2025-01-29T13:24:38.498-05:00

This sounds like an intriguing premise for a game.

search engine algorithm + attercorn = Thoul's ...

2024-11-29T16:51:45.878-05:00

search engine algorithm + attercorn = Thoul's Paradise? I can live with that.

I read this book in the early 70s - for some odd r...

2024-11-28T21:16:27.172-05:00

I read this book in the early 70s - for some odd reason it was on my mind today. Finally remembered "attercorn" and this site came up in the search.
I still have the paperback. I believe I bought it in the local grocery store. I thought it was a good story then - I still do.

Hi greatt reading your blog

2024-07-10T11:02:43.621-04:00

Hi greatt reading your blog

Yes, but did you know there was also not a movie b...

2023-03-03T12:34:50.878-05:00

Yes, but did you know there was also not a movie based on Omegakron, and the soundtrack was released in 2012 as part of the free record day promotion in 2012?
https://albums.patternbased.com/album/novos-akros
And you can tour scenic Omegakron as it is now, using the landmarks in the book
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1TE-ti5N4EFpL67BpUVPEWhCtdo1aa6KX&usp=sharing

It is available on Drive Thru RPG for $5.99. http...

2023-01-05T12:08:00.283-05:00

It is available on Drive Thru RPG for $5.99. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/420369/The-Complete-Works-of-Zorin-Greystar

I take the additional skill points 5x years in ser...

2022-06-12T01:50:48.253-04:00

I take the additional skill points 5x years in service and changed it to 5x tours of service is an additional amount of points (from your initial total) which have to be spent on career skills. For example, 7 tours x5 equals 35. The character totaled 99 skill points. Half of 99 is 49 plus 35 = 84. 84 of the 99 points need to be spent on career skills. The remaining 15 can be spent on anything. I did this to cut character creation time in half and characters come out with fewer skills but concentrated on the essentials of the class.

I've been toiling away too long on a new Space...

2022-06-12T01:28:35.316-04:00

I've been toiling away too long on a new Space Opera character sheet. Form-fillable of course.

Hopefully it’s just a sabbatical. I love this blog...

2022-06-05T15:39:53.294-04:00

Hopefully it’s just a sabbatical. I love this blog!

I regret the unexpected sabbatical.

2022-04-30T12:02:31.445-04:00

I regret the unexpected sabbatical.

It’s 2022 and the blog is…?

2022-04-29T20:34:40.706-04:00

It’s 2022 and the blog is…?