I was interviewed for a Podcast!

This is sort of old news now (since it was posted on three days ago) but in case anyone hasn't already heard, German AD&D (and other old-school wargames) uberfan Settembrini did a 3 hour interview with me for his podcast, which is now available for your listening pleasure. I've heard from people who've listened to the whole thing (or at least claim to have) that it's not totally boring and incomprehensible, so yay! 

I haven't listened to it (because I don't think I could stand to listen to my own voice for 3+ hours) but from memory we talked about (in no particular order and tending to ramble back and forth between topics) why we like AD&D better than BX D&D, my inspirations and methods for creating The Heroic Legendarium (and the bootleg "AD&D Companion" that preceded it), what makes for good adventures and why Temple of Elemental Evil isn't one, my games with Gary in the 80s playtesting Necropolis (and my attempts at leveraging that experience to create an accurate AD&D conversion of it), using miniatures vs theater of the mind, why I like wargames but am not actually very good at them, why and how OSRIC needs to be updated, whether it's possible to make the Upper Outer Planes a location for interesting adventures, and probably some other stuff that I'm forgetting. 

It was fun having a nice long conversation with someone who shares my enthusiasm for this stuff. Maybe it will also be fun to listen in on that conversation... 

Literary and pop-culture examples of AD&D classes

A friend recently asked me if I had a list of literary or pop-culture characters that exemplify the various AD&D classes (in the same manner as the alignment examples I posted a few months back). I didn't, but it seemed like a fun idea so I came up with one. And, having done so, it seemed only fitting to post it here. Of course I've included the classes from The Heroic Legendarium alongside the canonical ones. I'm sure people could find things to quibble with in some of these, especially as some of the classes have been subtly or not-so-subtly redefined in later editions, but I feel all of these matches are good for how I envision the classes and how they were portrayed in the 1st edition books.

Fighter - John Carter of Mars, Hercules, Sinbad, Robin Hood, d’Artagnan (The Three Musketeers),  Odysseus, Thor (Marvel comics), James T. Kirk (Star Trek), Duncan Idaho (Dune)

Barbarian - Conan, Tarzan, Jeremiah Johnson

Hunter - Orion, Daniel Boone, Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games)

Ranger - Aragorn, Natty Bumppo (James Fenimore Cooper), Davy Crockett

Cavalier - Sir Gawain, Sir Tristram, Boromir

Paladin - Sir Galahad, Sir Perceval, Roland Deschain (Dark Tower series)

Cleric - Van Helsing, Friar Tuck, Father Merrin (The Exorcist), Moses

Druid - Merlin, Radagast the Brown, Grizzly Adams

Mystic - Danny Torrance (Doctor Sleep), the Witches (Discworld series), Yoda (Star Wars series)

Magic-User - Gandalf, Circe, Ged/Sparrowhawk (Earthsea series), Hermione Granger (Harry Potter series), Dr. Strange (Marvel comics)

Illusionist - Saruman, Morgan le Fay

Savant - The Doctor (Doctor Who), Spock (Star Trek), Sherlock Holmes

Thief - Bilbo Baggins, the Gray Mouser (Fritz Leiber), Nifft the Lean (Michael Shea), Nuth (Lord Dunsany), Satampra Zeiros (Clark Ashton Smith), Aladdin

Acrobat - John Robie (Cary Grant in To Catch a Thief), Catwoman (Batman), Lupin III

Assassin - Black Widow (Marvel comics), John Wick

Mountebank - Cugel the Clever (Jack Vance), Harry Mudd (Star Trek), Professor Harold Hill (The Music Man)

Monk - Kwai Chang Caine (Kung Fu), Remo Williams (The Destroyer series)

Bard - Orpheus, Alan-a-Dale, Richard Francis Burton, Gurney Halleck (Dune)

Jester - Loki (Marvel comics), The Joker (Batman), Will Scarlet