October 11, 2010: My Weirdness Cup Overflows

I've actually been asked "What's Suppressed Transmission about?" My answer is "It's Kenneth Hite writing about weird stuff." For many gamers, that's a perfectly complete answer, and one that usually compels a purchase.

If you're not familiar with Mr. Hite, or are unclear with what "weird stuff" is, let me unpack that statement a bit. Ken Hite has been working in the hobby games industry since the early '80s, and has a bit of a reputation for knowing odd facts about esoteric topics. Trivia about Cthulhu, medieval sorcery, and modern horror films all jostle around inside his brain. As a result, his writing takes a peculiar bend occasionally, one that brilliantly makes odd connections between the real and the fictional, bringing them all into the gameable.

Suppressed Transmission, for example, started life as a feature in the HTML version of Pyramid. The first 34 of those articles -- covering the Philadelphia Project, the Great Pole Shift, hidden messages in Shakespeare's works, and much more -- were collected and annotated for this book. Now e23 has uploaded the digital version, and you can have the high weirdness with you on your favorite PDF reader.

Space Gamer #42 was also uploaded this week. It isn't nearly as weird, but after Suppressed Transmission, you may need a batch of articles from 1981 on Star Fleet Battles, Metamorphosis Alpha, and Traveller, just to settle your sanity down a bit.

-- Paul Chapman