The Alliterates » Bruce’s News http://alliterates.com Bent on total word domination Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:21:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 A New Abolethic Sovereignty Review http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/5TvfqVZHANc/new-abolethic-sovereignty-review.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/5TvfqVZHANc/new-abolethic-sovereignty-review.html#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:04:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell Even though I'm enjoying writing about Demascus these days, it's great when books in my backlist get some love. So it was fantastic to see a new review of my Abolethic Sovereignty trilogy (Plague of Spells, City of Torment, and Key of Stars) by the Crimson Bastards, a podcasting and game reviewing site.
"I have read several books by Bruce Cordell but I think that the books in this trilogy might be my favorites. From the beginning the Lovecraftian vibe these books bring to Faerûn captured my attention and didn’t release it until the story was complete."
Read the full review here! http://crimsonbastards.com/2012/01/review-abolethic-sovereignty-trilogy/
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/8439499733068393617/comments/default 0 Holy And/Or Radiant Damage http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/DxFwgkWLRrY/minor-point-but-one-of-potential.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/DxFwgkWLRrY/minor-point-but-one-of-potential.html#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:45:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell A minor point but one of potential interest to D&D players who've played multiple editions of the game. Can holy and radiant damage both live in the same game? (Another way to put it: can we get by with just the one and not feel like we're missing something?)

Take the poll here.
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/8544157159896780468/comments/default 0 So, Yeah, "D&D Next" http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/0qaa_M0H0jQ/so-yeah-d-next.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/0qaa_M0H0jQ/so-yeah-d-next.html#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:42:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell D&D Next (as the cool kids are calling it), a project that will likely evolve into a new iteration of the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. We intend that these rules connect with all previous versions, and indeed, the players of those games. Our goals are big, we own that. But they're good goals, and we won't accomplish them if we don't try. We want to create a rulset that can include players of every previous version of D&D because, after all, it's ALL D&D. The essence of D&D lies outside the mechanics, and we're on the hunt to bring this goal to ground.
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/5047440065014026241/comments/default 0 An Exercise in Sarcasm http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/YLag1m_YbK8/exercise-in-sarcasm.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/YLag1m_YbK8/exercise-in-sarcasm.html#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 20:46:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell Herman Caine's 9/9/9 plan is easy to understand. That's why it's BETTER. Everything easy to understand is ALWAYS better. That's why iphones and electron microscopes are better than yelling and looking, because everyone understands exactly how iphones and electron microscopes operate. Shucks, I could probably whip either up in my barn in just two shakes of a lamb's tail.
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/4152700749764153197/comments/default 0 Imprisoned http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/llA_A60SB84/imprisoned.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/llA_A60SB84/imprisoned.html#comments Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:14:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell In the realm of the fantastic fiction and games, it's common to find imprisoned entities of terrible malign strength, secured by Ancient Powers of Good rather than destroyed. As for instance happened in the movie The Keep I watched last weekend with Batgirl.

The question is, why? Why didn't those Ancient Powers of Good who managed to imprison the Evil Thing simply not destroy it?

In my novel Sword of the Gods, and its sequel Spinner of Lies, this is something I've had to wrestle with. And this is what I've come up with, which works well enough for broader application:

Imprisoning defeated Evil Things and other cosmically powerful creatures is always better than killing them. Why? Because when they're killed, such entities reform/reincarnate somewhere farther down the time stream, but the where and when is impossible to predict.

By imprisoning an Evil Thing, you're guaranteed to restrict its movements in the future (assuming some clueless nazi/D&D adventuring party doesn't wander by years later and let it loose). On the other hand, killing the Evil Thing releases the essence into the multiverse, and that quanta of Evil Thing Energy will find purchase anew, eventually.

That said, a lot of great feedback was generated in comments where I first posted this, which I'm incorporating here as so: Different imprisoned Evil Things should probably have different reasons for escaping execution. Why? Because more options provide more story potential.

Possible reasons why a given defeated Evil Thing is imprisoned instead of dead:

• Death would release the slain Evil Thing to an inevitable reincarnation at an unknown time and place;
• Moral reluctance on the part of the victors;
• Inability for the Evil Thing to actually die (for whatever reason);
• The Evil Thing's potential as a weapon in some other conflict the victors are concerned about;
• The Evil Thing is linked to the Powers of Good so that to slay one slays both;
• The Evil Thing is an actual agent of a Power of Good and thus it is not so much imprisoned as kept caged until needed;
• And finally, some Evil Things are slain (we just don't usually hear about those in stories).

(Of course, if you're not an ancient power of good, but just a really butch mortal with weapons forged for a god, it's more viscerally satisfying to kill an Evil Thing than imprison it. A mortal's short life span means that killing a powerful demonic entity seems to get the job done well enough, so why worry about future generations?)

]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/1760154254512371630/comments/default 0 Emailing Me http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/-YDgBh0W7Yw/emailing-me.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/-YDgBh0W7Yw/emailing-me.html#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2011 22:02:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell Just click this link, which sends you to a google-mediated form that will get delivered to my email box.

I can't promise I'll answer, but I'll try :-).
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/7415497886382521463/comments/default 0 Congressional Reform Act of 2011 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/9NY_9vnz_SA/congressional-reform-act-of-2011.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/9NY_9vnz_SA/congressional-reform-act-of-2011.html#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:42:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell
The proposed act appeared in my inbox. I've amended it only slightly. Still not sure how to get corporate money out of the equation though; might be impossible. Any ideas?


1. Term Limits. 12 years only, one of the possible options below.

A. Two Six-year Senate terms
B. Six Two-year House terms
C. One Six-year Senate term and three Two-Year House terms

2. No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3. Congress (past , present and future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do. (They are free to enroll in 401k or 401b style plans like every other person in the country.)

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.

The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/6918561152845476739/comments/default 0 Ruby Ring http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/O9BZPlVZwYg/ruby-ring.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/O9BZPlVZwYg/ruby-ring.html#comments Wed, 27 Jul 2011 04:16:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell
It's a ruby, slightly scratched, set in a gold ring.

It's a humbling gift, and it made me think about my grandfather's life, and my father's, and about the ultimate inevitability of death. But at the same time the represents a continuance of a sort. It's a thread through the generations. In this case, the thread is all the more bitter-sweet because in each case, my grandmother personally passed on the ring as a result of a recipient's passing.
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/6794078533578561643/comments/default 0 Visiting Home http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/vMm2JznYo0w/visiting-home.html http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/BruceRCordell/~3/vMm2JznYo0w/visiting-home.html#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:55:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell
I'm back where I grew up to attend an old friend's wedding. Most of the old gang is here (minus one who couldn't make it--we miss you JD!).

As sat around talking last evening, I think most of us realized that we'd planned far too short a trip. It was just so good to see everyone. We relaxed into ourselves, the people we'd been in jr. high and high school, and laughed at the half-remembered (or well-remembered!) jokes and stories from the old days.

I'm writing this with my feet up on a recliner, passing the time with my Mom in her very comfortable home. Later, the wedding, and tomorrow and the next day I'll go see my grandmothers, each still living out on the farm where each one has lived for the last forty or fifty years (at least).

There's a lot of history in this place; it made me the person I am today. I think I sometimes take that for granted. Or I only think about all the reasons I left.

But not today.

Watertown SD, for this weekend at least, you're number one in my book.
]]> http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/feeds/8884630111922381316/comments/default 0 Anti-Vaxers and Grief Predators http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/2011/06/anti-vaxers-and-grief-predators.html http://brucecordell.blogspot.com/2011/06/anti-vaxers-and-grief-predators.html#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2011 22:23:00 +0000 Bruce R Cordell in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, anti-vaccination nonsense continues to hang on with such tenacity.

Then I read this account of a woman's experience attending an anti-vaccination convention, and I figured it out:

Like many wrong ideas that live long past their expiration date, someone's making a buck promulgating the disproved idea that vaccinations are harmful.

And anti-vaccination conventions are example number one. (Books written and speaker fees received by prominent anti-vaxers are example two.) Anti-vax conventions and people associated with them benefit financially when parents are misinformed. And who better to target than people who're hurting and looking for answers, such as the parents of autistic children? Just like psychics and mediums who take money from grieving wives, husbands, and parents of recently lost loved-ones, those pushing the idea that vaccination equals autism are grief predators. They're cashing in on parents who buy their books, buy their alt-meds, and attend their conventions and talks.

One Skeptic's Experience at an anti-vax convention: http://bit.ly/lBDW26
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