StanleyWheeler

    Those of you who have read Threading the Rude Eye may recognize this scene in which Antonio dares the British to do their worst. He, of course, has great confidence in his enchanted ward against British ball--as well as his personal charm with women. Earlier today, I spent a short time Les Freres Corses , and we did one of our talking adventures. (These adventures don't use dice or abilities etc; each participant makes a suggestion of what happens next in the adventure--like being spotted by dinosaurs, making it the ruins, suffering a fall, or what happens when the single lit button in the ancient UFO is pushed--and then everyone votes by playing one of three cards dealt to them to start the game. The suggestion that receives the high card is what happens; and the players each draw another card). Anyway, I'll spare you the turn by turn, but in less than an hour, the heroes escaped dinosaurs, discovered a secret passage into the ruins, activated an ancient starship an...

  I was able to spend some time with Les Freres Corses last week. In addition to having pizza, we found time to bust out some tabletop gaming. Above is the picture of the board they prepared for their two adventurers. I called it The Oracle, because of the crystal ball in the center. The T-Rex on the hill was the guardian of the oracle and the plastic army men were another group coming to seize the oracle for their warlord. What do you use to measure movement when you don't have your red, blue, and green gaming measurement sticks? You use the Bunny System, of course. Everything moved in increments of one, two, or three bunnies. The ghost was some mysterious creature that only activated on an 11 or 12 on a d12, and if active, would go dormant on a 1 on the d12. It was not a big factor in the game. The oracle activated whenever anyone came into contact with it. Naturally, that attracted the attention of the guardian.  As it turned out, I think T-Rex gobbled one soldier and the ...

  The Court of Peers Chris and Kenny step through a crack in a cave wall and come out somewhere else entirely — a place where a man named Court Barnes is fighting for his life against a knife-wielding attacker. The boys help him bandage the wound, and Court leads them back to his hidden camp: a lean-to cave stocked with pistols, a sword, and a warning that this isn't the Caribbean they'd recognize from any map. It's the moment the book stops being an ordinary cave hike and becomes something else — and Court becomes the closest thing the boys have to a trustworthy adult in a very dangerous place. Accidental Pirates is on sale this month The sale ends by the end of the month.  Speaking of Accidental Pirates , the sequel, Accidental Wizard comes out next month. I don't know if I'm allowed to give any tidbits to whet your appetite for this rip-roaring sequel, but I'm going to do so. I'm doing final edits. I would love to see some renderings of the scene...