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Interview With A Dork Who Is Mad About Female Space Marines
There are gates? They fell? wtf?If you follow Warhammer 40k stuff (which I do a little because I'm running this), then you know that their crazed hatemob issue for the last few years is female space...
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The Zak Conspiracy Theorists Admitted They Lied
If you read his blog, this is the most important thing that's ever been on it:I started this blog in 2009 to document my mostly-porn-stars' game group's D&D game and my game ideas.A little while...
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Good Deed Goes Punished
 The Demon City galley--proofs are sitting on my table:Th e real books should be actually printed soon...The section on political campaigns was written by Linda Tirado, the journalist who wrote the...
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There's A New Zak Book Available for Pre-Order
I have a new art retrospective book coming out now available for pre-order. The price will jump in a few days, so if you're interested, best to grab one soon. It covers the last 20 years of art.With...
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Hell Sent Me Back
I'm back publishing games with Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Details about all that here.Right now there's an adventure available at Gen Con--In The Night Fortress. It is free at the LotFP table...
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Three Kinds of Mystery
Ok, there are three kinds of mystery in stories--Classic 'What's Gonna Happen?' Mystery (diegetic mystery)This is a mystery to both the audience and the main characters in the story: They are wondering...
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How To Fix Everything
This is a really interesting article about how some people managed to talk like adults about a piece of art they didn't like. Whether or not you like their solution: it appears they came to a solution...
View ArticleSmear Math for Morons
 One very weird thing I've noticed when people discuss the smear campaign is people saying these two thing, often in the same breath:lol Zak is so cancelled we sure destroyed his life lmao!lol Zak is...
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Awful Green Things In The Dungeon
After many months of being like Oh man I gotta do that, my friend recently dug up the copy of Awful Green Things From Outer Space that he first played as a child--originally printed in Dragon Magazine...
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Megadungeon Map
click to enlargeThe players find this somewhere in the megadungeon, showing how the areas connect, where the Gate of Six Keys is and where the keys are.
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It Will Be Here, It Will Cost 0$, And Then It Will Be Gone Forever
The hardcover, full-color, 8.5x11", 400-page Compendium is now available. Until Jan 1. Then it's gone. And it costs 0$.Fifteen years in the making, it includes:-All of the illustrated Cube World...
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There's A Very Simple Explanation for All This (reader participation time)
 Game day yesterday. Got to use the Compendium (get yours today!) for the first time since it arrived in the mail, which was fun and convenient......the players found a Dealer In Fine Silks in a cage...
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PC Backgrounds Only Faster
One thing I initially liked about 5e was the skill list--it seemed like a reasonable compromise between all PCs of a class seeming to have identical skillsets (old school) and "Use Rope"-level useless...
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This Is Why This Has Lasted Six Years
I just got this last week.It's from a friend who saw my ex- and I every week. As usual, we stayed friends after and she didn't believe any of the bullshit, but she moved upstate a few years back.You...
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Frequently Asked Questions About The Compendium
So lots of people have questions about the Compendium! Here's a newer flip-thru video:Â Here's the details of its contents.Apparently many people are thrown by the fact this 400+ page book is free! And...
View ArticleThis is Fascinating and I Love It
 So this is an interview with Rick "I wrote Warhammer 40K because nobody in the company thought it'd make any money" Priestley about all the unfinished projects that he can remember at Games Workshop...
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The Trial of Tor Gunnar Magnuson
 So when last we saw our heroes they had rolled on the Carousing Table and all had gone sideways.I actually made a diagram to keep it all straightSo this time, I set things up to deal with the...
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Because David Lynch Died
This is an old post which I'm re-posting because David Lynch died. A stray observation here--that his work frequently nailed the distinctive spot where you don't know whether to laugh or be terrified,...
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Weekday Side Quest
Since I have a large game group with players who shift in and out week by week I've been experimenting a little bit with what you might call solo side-quests.The idea is they keep players who might...
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The Demon City Hardcover Is Now Available To Everyone
You can get your copy of Demon City, the world's best horror RPG here.Also there are currently two adventures available for 20$ each on pdf--email zakzsmith AT hawtmayle dawt calm for those.For more...
View ArticleHP Lovecraft, Racism, and Educating James--New Video
A new webseries (?)Zak and James attempt to discuss Lovecraft and racism, while also bringing up: Jordan Peele, Lovecraft Country, Kingdom Death, Alien, Jaws, nerdy introversion, Taxi Driver, James’...
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The Theory of the Labyrinth
A good part of the magic of D&D is from a specific aesthetic effect it shares with several other types of fiction that I'm going to call The Theory of the Labyrinth.It's this:So theresThe KnownThe...
View ArticleInternationally Acclaimed Author Lydia Davis Discussing The RPG Community...
Lydia Davis may be a name unfamiliar to gamers but she is no slouch. She got a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, won an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award of Merit medal and a Booker Prize.Here...
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Playing D&D With Porn Stars and Also The Founder of the OSR and The Head of...
 Two very short stories from playing D&D last week:So if you know anything about Caroline Pierce you know...Wait, let me rephrase, if you know anything about Caroline Pierce playing D&D, you...
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Psychoclastic MicroHell
A Psychoclastic MicroHell is a small pocket aspect of Hell that an adventuring party can be temporarily teleported to for a variety of reasons. Going there is a bit like the classic Maze spell except...
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