"Hey Alex, Thanks for the recommendation of Tunnels and Trolls. I'll have to find it on Amazon. I appreciate that even though you have your own preferences, you still feel the desire to share other less popular works. With our society all about conformity, being an individual is rare."
I like more than I ever dislike items from popular culture chosen media, whether comics, books, film or games. My desire to actually promote works I like rather than poop on anything I might not like led to people complaining that "a person can't like everything". And I agree, I don't love or like everything. But my goal has always been promoting what I think is best. That is different than many reviewers, who usually seek to make their role as the gatekeeper of quality, hating the bad, loving the good, and being honest about it all. I don't think of myself as like them. We live brief lives, we should be focused on the good, it is rare to find great things, I don't think the other reviewers are bad, I am just not one of them. Some reviewers are the carrot, others are the stick.
Today's post is a list of items you might pursue for fun. Fun is good. I think quality and popularity are really different, but, you should never stop reading, watching or playing something you like simply because others consider it bad. We all have a great number of aspects of our taste and character, and these are unique to our person. I knew there was a lot of music from the 60s and 70s that I didn't like, and then I learned about Motown. I thought it was a moment sent from god, only to have an office mate in college say Motown is commercial shit. I get it. We aren't the same. So, don't like or dislike based upon reviewers, base it upon your own visceral response.
For me Tunnels and Trolls worked. For other gamers I've found most have never played it, but beyond that, those who did couldn't wrap their brains around playing a system that they'd never played before. I like it. And while I said the goal of the makers seemed to be here it is, play it now! I don't think it is without the setting's cultural development. There is a distinct flavor of the setting. I simply think that the ease of play is the aspect of it that deserves the most promotion.
Fun Movies: While I have fantasy and adventure films on my own personal favorite list, I am looking to offer something here that is simply fun. The violence is not overmuch, there is romance or hopeful love, and there are characters who inspire rather than succeed despite their flaws. Krull was fun and offered a story that had a fun new weapon. LadyHawke defined beauty in many ways, that Michelle Pfeifer, wowser. And DragonSlayer was to me alone perhaps, a quality take on the tale of the young flawed hero upon an epic journey.
Mouse Guard has qualities of beautiful story telling and heroic stories. It is a way to tell a story of a warrior, without the human characters to make it personal. By watching these heroes of small stature act heroically and find victory or experience defeat there is a different sort of intimacy of the story telling.
Mice Templar is less soft and beautiful, and more heroic and courageous than Mouse Guard. I think though, Bryan Glass's writing, and the stylized art make it a better read. I am not suggesting I think it is miles above Mouse Guard, just that, fun is the required element here, and this work succeeds wildly there.
I've no doubt surprised no one by including here, Alan Dean Fosters's works Shadowkeep and The Spellsinger. He has a way with characters who are not brawny golden heroes, and often places into danger the common man or the anything but heroic man. As such when the day is won, it feels so much better than the predictable, the muscular testicular powerful hero. I recommend ADF's Spellsinger books for some fantasy that works as fantasy.
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