Skirmisher Publishing LLC is celebrating the start of the holiday season and thanking its many loyal readers and customers by having a holiday sale that will include very heavy discounts and many special, collectible, and unique items that would make great gifts (for others or oneself). In particular, we will be adding one new or special item to our eBay store or to one of our Amazon.com listings every day between now and the end of the year! During this sale, every item in the Skirmisher inventory will either be substantially reduced in price, accompanied by a variety of free items, or both. (Keep your eye on this page for updates on these items!)

"We have so many new items coming out over the next few months that we both need to make space in our warehouse and drum up extra revenue for an unprecedented number of printings," said Michael J. Varhola, Skirmisher editor-in-chief and publisher. "This is definitely in the interests of our customers, and that's fine with us; our main goal has always been to get our books and other products into people's hands, and this will help us accomplish that."

Examples of sale specials on Amazon.com include -- but are not limited to -- heavily discounted copies of:

* Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition live-action horror role-playing game (new $14.95, used $9.95, signed collectible $24.95).

* The Old Man of Damascus script for Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition (new $4.95, signed collectible $10.00).

* Nuisances d20 parody book (new $13.95, used $9.95, signed collectible $19.95).

* Nuisances: Director's Cut revised and expanded d20 parody book on CD-ROM (new $11.95, signed collectible $14.95).

* Warriors d20 sourcebook (new $4.95, used $3.95, signed collectible $19.95).

* Tests of Skill d20 sourcebook and adventure (new $7.75, used $6.95, signed collectible $19.95).

* Experts v.3.5 d20 sourcebook (new $19.95, used $14.95, signed collectible $24.95).

* USSMC FM 7-22: Space Boarding Operations futuristic field manual (new $4.99, signed collectible $10.00).

* H.G. Wells' Little Wars miniature wargaming rules (new $8.95, used $6.95, signed collectible $10.00).

* H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars quick-play miniature wargaming rules (new $2.95, used $1.95, signed collectible $10.00).

* H.G. Wells' Floor Games miniature wargaming rules (new $8.95, used $7.95, signed collectible $11.95).


Examples of sale specials at Skirmisher's eBay store include:

* A Devil Candlestick Holder, a resin-cast replica of a Victorian era original that is the first in a series of props and collectible tie-ins for the Cthulhu Live 3rd Edition live-action horror roleplaying game.

* Free copies of Skirmisher's H.G. Wells' Little Orc Wars quick-play rules with all sets of the company's Orcs of the Triple Death hand-painted miniatures.

* Free temporary tattoos designed by artist Matt Beman of Beaumont Miniatures with both print copies of Skirmisher's popular Nuisances d20/OGL parody book.

* Up to 60% off cover price on starting bids for signed, collectible copies of Skirmisher d20 books, including its popular Experts v.3.5, Warriors, and Tests of Skill.


No matter what you order or where, mention that you are a Skirmisher reader and we will be sure to throw in a few extras with your order!

If you want to see a good fantasy flick, sort of like Shrek with a darker flavor, then go see Beowulf. The fight scenes with Grendel and the Dragon are excellent.

If you want to understand the epic poem, there are better ways to spend your time. I'm slated to teach Beowulf to my seventh grade humane letters class next quarter, so I spent a good chunk of last summer studying up on it. This made me especially anxious to see what they would do with a movie version. I picked up the comic book serialization at Readers' Copies, so I wasn't surprised when I actually saw the story on screen.

What qualities make a free man worthy of respect? What makes a king a good king? How should we respond when bad things happen to good people? These are the themes that drive the epic. The qualities admired in the Middle Ages were prowess, loyalty, generousity and courtesy. The poem of Beowulf shows us that the valuation of these qualities were not imposed by some ideal in the Middle Ages, but grew out of the conditions of life experienced by people north of the Alps in the Dark Ages. These qualities were different in some ways from the qualities admired by the classical Greeks and Romans. Our American culture today owes more to the qualities of the north than to the classical qualities of the south.

However... since World War I, the anti-heroic seems to dominate, with a few exceptions such as The Lord of the Rings.

SPOILER ALERT!!! SPOILER ALERT!!! Do not read on if you want to be surprised by anything in the movie!!!

The writers of the Beowulf movie turn all of the major male characters into anti-heroes. Evil doesn't happen to people because that is the nature of life in this present evil age. Evil happens because no red-blooded male can resist doing the deed with Grendel's mom, and then lying about it afterwards! Grendel is Hrothgar's son. The Dragon is Beowulf's son. We never find out who Wiglaf's son is going to be, but as the movie ends, we know there is going to be one.

Grendel and the Dragon are pretty good monsters (except the Dragon looks a little too much for my taste like Godzilla from the version with Matthew Broderick), but Grendel's mom just seems silly, if you can picture a nekkid Angelina Jolie as looking silly. She has a prehensile braid that she doesn't really do anything with, and stilletto heels growing out of her feet. She's covered with some kind of golden fluid which is always running off of her body except over the strategic parts. Speaking of strategic parts, the animators didn't do a very good job of reproducing the effects of gravity on her upper story female appurtenances, which was another thing that made the graphics remind me of Shrek.

According to the movie, Beowulf's outstanding feats of bravery and prowess (exaggeration, the figure of speech hyperbole, was to spoken sagas what special effects are to Hollywood movies) were nothing more than the blowhard tales of a lying, glory hungry braggart.

Sad.

And it's not just because it's a movie done in comic book style. I really liked 300.

-- Steve Lortz

To comment on either this review or the movie itself, go to its page on our interactive Forum!

One of the few non-comedic movies by gamers, about gamers, and ultimately for gamers, Darkon (Ovie Productions/Seethink Productions, 2006) is a documentary that focuses on the activities of the Darkon Wargaming Club, a fantasy live-action role-playing (LARP) group in Baltimore, Maryland.

Moreso than movies of any sort by non-gamers about role-playing gaming (e.g., the execrable Mazes and Monsters), Darkon explores the purposes, positive aspects, and benefits of the hobby and the motives people have for participating in it. While it also hints at the all-consuming effect RPGs can have on their participants, it is ultimately more of an apologia for the hobby than an examination of it.

From a technical point of view, Darkon is well filmed, excellently scored, and structurally sound. One thing it does not do, however, is explain what a LARP is. Naturally, this does not matter much as far as gamers are concerned, but the absence of such explanation severely limits the value this film could have had as a tool for telling the non-gaming world about something about which it has limited awareness and little understanding. It is also a little on the long side, with multiple, interchangeable battle scenes, some of which could have been cut in lieu of some interviews with some third parties who could have helped put LARPing and RPGing in context.

A product of its times, Darkon draws as much on the genre of reality television as it does on that of documentary, with asides to the camera by its various subjects that shed light on their motivations and relationships in and out of the game. Depending on whether one likes reality TV or not, this could be seen as either a benefit or a detriment.

Some of the costuming and props used by the Darkon LARPers are impressive, with especial kudos going to the Dark Elf reenactors (who do not appear in the film nearly enough). Firing catapults and a wooden fortress that is actually burned at the end of a battle demonstrate the willingness of this club's members to go above and beyond in their gaming.

Overall, Darkon is worth a watch by anyone interested in seeing a particular side of the gaming genre. It is likely, however, to be just as confusing as it is enlightening to outsiders, and does not go nearly as far toward producing an understanding of the hobby to those not already familiar with it.

Darkon is 93 minutes long. It premiered and won the Best Documentary Audience Award at the 2006 South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, and is an official selection playing at the Hot Docs, Maryland Film Festival, Silverdocs, LA Film Festival, Britdoc and Melbourne International Film Festival. It aired on the Independent Film Channel Nov. 12, and that might thus be a good place to keep an eye out for it.

To comment on either this review or the movie itself, go to its page on our interactive Forum!

Labels: Baltimore, Darkon, documentary, gaming, LARP, live-action role-playing, movie, RPG