As a backer of the BLT Kickstarter, I just got a notice that they’ve hit their first stretch goal. That means that there will be a new issue of BLT and all backers get a free bonus of that issue! Needless to say, I am extremely stoked and now I will do another detailed review of one of my favorite back issues of this unique and very funny zine.
The D&D/B&D issue of BLT covers two favorite topics, which not-so-surprisingly actually do seem to go together, at least if you go to the sorts of science fiction conventions which I attended in the 1990’s. I’m not sure if the Dan Smith listed in the credits is the one who also did illustrations for Wizards of the Coast, White Wolf, Steve Jackson, and every other gaming company on the planet, but the style and signature glyph look right. Whether or not it is the same Dan Smith, the cover art is really sexy and cool and very fitting for the theme of this issue of the humor zine.
The D&D/B&D issue of BLT kicks off with a quiz Are You A Gaming Geek: Sober advice from your Kindly Uncle William. The first question is:
Your favorite RPG is:
a) AD&D by a mile.
b) Paranoia.
c) The Lonely Librarian and Satan.
d) Rocket-Propelled Grenades have no finesse.
The answer key has me laughing out loud every time I read it. Then, you are reminded of the timeline, because next are three articles on the death of Kurt Cobain. They are still in the inimitable BLT style. Next, the issue is back on topic with Fiddling While Tokyo Burns: Live Action Role Playing Cyberpunk Style by Colin MacDonald. He explains the pluses of LARPing a belligerent, drunken, womanizing rock star. Nice work if you can get it. His insights on LARPing in corporate drag are, however, very, well, insightful. Then Amelia G clocks in with Roleplaying for Real Life Awareness. This is a humorous deconstruction of the psychology of wandering quest parties in Dungeons & Dragons, Paranoia, Vampire, Little Red Riding Hood & the Horny Constructin Worker, Werewolf, Cthulu, and Real Life. Pyro Chris then explains how D&D educated him on potential abuses for slingshots. Then Drew Boyd looks at the standard structure for fantasy novels based on the whole questing paradigm. He writes:
Wouldn’t at least one group fail? I’d really like to see some elaborate badly written pulp novel end up with everyone dead, crippled, or broke. The furry ringbearer with his fingers cut off in stocks marching to his doom behind orc armies. The guy with the Secret Crafty Cure for all of Humanity’s Ills forgets it in his other Cloak of Holding. Everyone meets in a tavern, drinks a lot of bad ale…
Anyway, there is less than an hour left to get your very own collection of deathless prose like this. Edit: The book is now available on Amazon!
BLT Hits New Issues Stretch Goal!
Stretch goal #1 unlocked! You backer folks will all get a new BLT, in addition to all your other goodies from all tiers at contributor or above!
A couple days ago, I was super worried BLT might not hit its goal at all, so, although I had a little chart of possible stretch goals, I was not thinking about them. BLT has now exceeded the goal by enough that we plan to be doing one new issue of BLT. OG Black Leather Times artist Slash is on board for this issue, writer Will Judy has already written some bad/good good/bad advice, Forrest Black will be doing design again, and basically it is going to be really cool and a lot of fun. Of course, I’ll be writing stuff and editing, so please let me know if you’d like to contribute writing or illustration.
As there is only an hour and a half left to go in the Kickstarter, there is not much time left to stretch, but . . .
If we hit $5,200, that will pay for another T-shirt design and 3 *new* issues of BLT. So, if you were thinking of adding $25 to your pledge for another T-shirt or $40 for 2 T-shirts, you can still do that for a little over an hour. If your friend has been contemplating pledging, tell ’em to do it now.
