Talien's Tower
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Wednesday, July 25

Awfully Familiar Now Available on Kindle for $4.99!

Everyone knows the legend of the Pied Piper, but there's more to the story: What happened to the rats? What happened to the children? When a spell goes awry in a rat-baiting competition, Scrap discovers he's a little of both. In this whimsical coming of age tale, a running battle between Black's gang of pickpockets and Piper's summoned vermin spills out into the streets of Calximus City. Scrap and his companion Switch must navigate the aristocracy and underworlds of rodent and human alike to solve the mystery of their roots. Along the way he'll make friends of rat and man; survive cats, goblins, ogres, and witches; and if he's smart enough, kind enough, and believes enough, Scrap just might save the kingdom…and himself.

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posted by Mike Tresca at 6:54 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Wednesday, July 18

Mike Dana (my dad!) on Mickey B's Jukebox Revue

My dad (Mike Dana) was interviewed on Mickey B's Jukebox Revue!
Video streaming by Ustream See more at Madhouse TV.

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posted by Mike Tresca at 8:07 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Sunday, July 15

If we met at ConnectiCon...

Please see my National RPG Examiner column for summaries of the panels I participated in at ConnectiCon. You can also follow me at http://www.twitter.com/dreadspace, http://www.facebook.com/dredspace, and on Google+.

For my latest fiction books, see The Well of Stars and Awfully Familiar.  For my non-fiction book see The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games

I'll be at Gen Con covering it as press; you can use the Contact button at top left if you want to chat further. Thank you for your interest! 

posted by Mike Tresca at 10:47 PM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.

Wednesday, July 11

Immersive Gameplay – Interview with Sarah Lynne Bowman

The first interview is with role-playing game and media scholar Sarah Lynne Bowman. Her article in the volume “Jungian Theory and Immersion in Role-Playing Games” explores mainstream games such as Dungeons and Dragons and World of Darkness as means of individuating Jungian archetypes and Campbellian heroic journeys. She contends that the explanatory power of Jungian archetypes may be used to debunk the “escapist” moniker stamped on so many game-related activities.
ET - As a fellow film studies scholar, I am often asked about how my studies of “analog” role-playing games tie into contemporary questions of media studies? What does a film studies scholar learn about film from looking at role-playing games and gaming in general? SLB – Well, first, I think that the “analog” nature of role-playing games is merely a formal and rather misleading distinction. While a game such as Dungeons & Dragons may be played in-person and in a small group, the original text is definitely a mass media product that has enjoyed widespread cultural influence. That product influenced the development of video games as we know them, as many of the earliest video games were attempts to recreate D&D dungeons. In addition, that product also spawned one of the most successful video games of all time; millions of gamers play World of Warcraft every day, the structure of which tightly follows the adventuring and leveling format of Dungeons & Dragons. For more on this topic, see Michael Tresca’s The Evolution of Fantasy Role-playing Games. Just as a film might be viewed by only one or a few people at a time, a role-playing game may be played in a small group. The mode of play enactment does not negate the mass media nature of the game product itself.
Read more at Guy in the Black Hat.

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posted by Mike Tresca at 6:31 AM | 0 comments


Want more? Please consider contributing to my Patreon; Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and the web; buy my books: The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games, The Well of Stars, and Awfully Familiar.