Dr Simon Reads...

Dr. Simon Reads Appendix N Part Eleven: Philip Jos é Farmer   This is an ongoing sporadic series, in which I explore classic fantasy and science fiction works. Appendix N is the bibliography of Gary Gygax's original Dungeon Masters Guide, and lists a range of classic SF and fantasy authors that influenced his interest in the fantastical. See  the first part of this series  for more information. This time around, I have reached the works of: Philip Jos é Farmer Farmer was born in Indiana in 1918, but although he wrote and published short stories sporadically from 1953 onwards, while working as a technical writer, but produced the bulk of his works in the early 70s, especially his two main series; the Riverworld series, and the World of Tiers, which is the one that gets a mention in Appendix N, and so is the one that I’ve covered here. Farmer continued to write all the way up until he died in 2008, and some the last two books in the World of Tiers series are wri...

White Dwarf 34: The Unborn   Last month is was psionic creatures, this month, undead, with a Fiend Factory called “ More Dead Than Alive ”. First up are the Morbe , aka the “Semi-Dead”.These are by Albie Fiore, which is always a little suspect that the editor sneaks in his own creations, but I like Fiore’s work so I’m willing to forgive! My original intent was to do a conversion for these guys, but in the end the mechanics were just a bit too clunky to adapt for my tastes. The Morbe are not completely undead, but neither are they completely living, existing in a kind of limbo state, brought about by a disease. If their Constitution score is under 18 they count as being in their “undead” state, and their attacks drain Constitution from their victims, adding it to their own until they reach 18+, at which point they enter their “living” form. While in “undead” form, attacks against them cause hit point damage. In “living” form, their attacks only cause normal weapon damage, bu...

Issue 33 The Psitan This time, the Fiend Factory is called All In The Mind , and features a collection of psionic creatures. First up, an oddity from Phil Masters, the Psi Mule . This is a flesh-eating, intelligent evil mule that pretends to be a regular pack mule in order to lure victims. It can use a mind blast, can take over regular mules, and has a collection of other psionic abilities, mostly ones that allow it to manipulate matter. One thought – if it can “ breed true ”, it’s not really a mule any longer, surely? I think this would make an interesting one-off encounter, part of the classic “evil horse” line of monsters.   But if that one was odd, our other old pal Roger E Moore goes one better, with the Giant Mole .   One assumes that Roger took the Brain Mole as his inspiration, because otherwise the concept of giant intelligent psionic moles is well out of left field. And, indeed, giant mole colonies will often keep brain moles as guard animals. Not as rife ...