From a western perspective, Wuxia and the Samurai genre can be very easy to blend together. In reality, though, Wuxia is a different beast. It has a history of rebellion, heroes disinterested in serving a local lord and finding their own destiny. Sound familiar? It’s probably the content of most weekly gaming sessions. Let’s take […]
Articles by Ben Jackson-Ellery
Ben Jackson-Ellery has also written on Tabletop & RPGs for our geeky readers.
Genre Police: Eventually We Had To Mention Katanas
The Samurai is now culturally everywhere. Most western geeks understand the concept of Bushido code and can happily argue the difference between wakishai and a tanto. However, when it first arrived, I imagine it was an odd genre for western audiences because while it was wildly aesthetically different, it had many hallmarks recognisable in our […]
Genre Police: The Only Good Pirate Is A Fake Pirate
Hoist the mainsail! Stow the booty! Set Sail For Outer shores! And while we’re at it, make sure we paint over anything that might make a bunch of bandits at sea look like criminals! Spend some time with us and let investigate the genre of pirates and how its far from a guide to the […]
Genre Police: The Sum Of All Fears
It’s far too late, far far too late to do anything about it. The end is not nigh, it’s been and gone. All that remains is this wasteland. And into this wasteland comes one man, a man with a mission to inform you about a genre. Count your bullets road warriors, let’s drive headlong into […]
Genre Police: Taking Up Space?
Okay….this is gonna be a difficult one. It’s gonna really be a column about how we can’t do a column that turns into a column. We’re going to look at how we look at science fiction, how historically it has evolved and how that isnt’ helpful to us. We might even learn something about games […]
Genre Police: Showdown At High Noon
Many of you might be wondering why I’m even bothering with the Western. Nowadays it’s viewed as a diminishing corner genre. When you say ‘Western’ to people they come up with an idea of ‘heroic cowboys’ killing ‘savage injuns’ and give it a pass. While there is some content that resembles this statement, not all […]
Genre Police: Crafted By Love
Yes. You Guessed it. It’s the Obligatory Cthulhu Column. Or ‘Cosmic Horror’ if you will. The genre owes a great deal to Lovecraft’s original creations, so much so that discussing the genre is essentially a dissection of mythos works. So this column is going to be a little more focused than usual. Something faceless owns […]
Genre Police: Blogpost Of Vile Darkness
Splatterpunk horror is a title that tends to set eyes rolling. Viewed as the lowest form of horror, splatterpunk lives up to its name. The genre is often derided as ‘gore for gore’s sake’ or ‘just going for shock factor’. Well…yes. But it’s more than that. So take a deep breath, we’re going to search […]
Genre Police: Oh The Horror!
Over the next few columns we are going to be diving into Horror. While we’ve looked at topics that have bordered the genre before, we haven’t dived right into its black heart. The problem with horror is that it very quickly divides into a massive set of sub-genre specifics. Poe, Lovecraft, King, Bright, Barker are […]
Tomb Of Horrors: Inside D&D’s most deadly, divisive and downright famous dungeon
It’s 2006. Our party are trapped on a frozen island on a forgotten continent, miles from Faerun. Unable to leave due to a binding spell placed on us by our enemies, we have searched the island for a way out. Finding evidence of ruins beneath us, we start to dig our way in. After the […]
