Legends, myths, and fairy tales: our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got here. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings, which on Earth are creatures of the imagination — like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods — are real, alive and, in some cases kicking, on the Disc.In The Folklore of Discworld, Terry Pratchett teams up with leading British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson to take an irreverent yet illuminating look at the living myths and folklore that are reflected, celebrated and affectionately libelled in the uniquely imaginative universe of Discworld.

    Read more...A new novel based on the worldwide video game phenomenon!The days of magic and adventure are fading away, giving way to the age of industry and science. As the aged last Hero sits upon the throne of Albion, two friends—the privileged Thomas and his loyal servant, John—set out for the East in search of a legendary beast: the vicious, rarely-seen balverine. But their desire for adventure may be their ultimate undoing—because their quarry has just found them...http://lionhead.com/Fable/FableIII/

    It is about Gul'dan opening a portal to the Burning Legion inside the Tomb of Sargeras, with mostly Khadgar's and Maiev Shadowsong's desperate attempts to prevent this.

    It gives you the basics on running a great game, info for more advanced dungeon mastering, guidelines for creating adventures, and tips for building a campaign. It shows you how to: Handle all the expressions of DMing: moderator, narrator, a cast of thousands (the nonplayer characters or NPCs), player, social director, and creator Use published adventures and existing campaign worlds or create adventures and campaign worlds of your own Conjure up exciting combat encounters Handle the three types of encounters: challenge, roleplaying, and combat Create your own adventure: The Dungeon Adventure, The Wilderness Adventure. The Event-Based adventure (including how to use flowcharts and timelines), The Randomly Generated Adventure, and the High-Level adventure Create memorable master villains, with nine archetypes ranging from agent provocateur to zealot To get you off to a fast start, Dungeon Master For Dummies includes:A sample dungeon for practice Ten ready-to-use encounters and ten challenging traps A list of simple adventure premises Mapping tips, including common scales, symbols, and conventions, complete with tables Authors Bill Slavicsek and Richard Baker wrote the hugely popular Dungeons and Dragons For Dummies. Bill has been a game designer since 1986 and leads the D&D creative team at Wizards of the Coast. Richard is a game developer and the author of the fantasy bestseller Condemnation. They give you the scoop on:Using a DM binder to keep records such as an adventure log, PCs' character sheets, NPC logs/character sheets, treasure logs, and more Knowing player styles (role players and power games) and common subgroups: hack'n'slasher, wargamer, thinker, impulsive adventurer, explorer, character actor, and watcher Recognizing your style: action movie director, storyteller, worldbuilder, puzzlemaker, or connector Using miniatures, maps, and other game aids Using 21st century technology, such as a Web site or blog, to enhance your game The book includes a sample adventure, The Necromancer's Apprentice, that's the perfect way to foray into DMing. It includes everything you need for a great adventure--except your players. What are you waiting for? There are chambers to be explored, dragons to be slain, maidens to be rescued, gangs of gnoll warriors to be annihilated, worgs to be wiped out, treasures to be discovered, worlds to be conquered....

    IntroductionChapter 1 - AbilitiesChapter 2 - RacesChapter 3 - ClassesChapter 4 - SkillsChapter 5 - Feats and TalentsChapter 6 - EquipmentChapter 7 - Playing the GameChapter 8 - MagicChapter 9 - SpellsAppendix (Index)Intended as a full (drop-in) replacement for D&D 3.x PHB; published under the Open Game License.

    * A beautifully designed resource chronicling one of gaming's most massive, dynamic universes! * MMORPG.com's Game of the Year 2009–2011! * 2014 marks the entry of EVE Online into its second decade!

    

    100,000 years ago, the galaxy was populated by a great variety of beings. But one species--eons beyond all others in both technology and knowledge--achieved dominance. They ruled in peace but met opposition with quick and brutal effectiveness. They were the Forerunners, the keepers of the Mantle, the next stage of life in the Universe's Living Time. And then they vanished. This is their story. Bornstellar Makes Eternal Lasting is a young rebellious Forerunner. He is a Manipular, untried, yet to become part of the adult Forerunner society, where vast knowledge and duty waits. He comes from a family of Builders, the Forerunners' highest and most politically powerful rate. It is the Builders who create the grand technology that facilitates Forerunner dominance over the known universe. It is the Builders who believe they must shoulder the greatest burden of the Mantle, as shepherds and guardians of all life. Bornstellar is marked to become a great Builder just like his father. But this Manipular has other plans. He is obsessed with lost treasures of the past. His reckless passion to seek out the marvelous artifacts left behind by the Precursors, long-vanished superbeings of unknowable power and intent, forces his father's hand. Bornstellar is sent to live among the Miners, where he must come to terms with where his duty truly lies. But powerful forces are at play. Forerunner society is at a major crux. Past threats are once again proving relentless. Dire solutions, machines and strategies never before contemplated, are being called up, and fissures in Forerunner power are leading to chaos. On a Lifeworker's experimental planet, Bornstellar's rebellious course crosses the paths of two humans, and the long lifeline of a great military leader, thus forever changing Bornstellar's destiny ...and the fate of the entire galaxy.

    The orcish Horde's violent invasion of the Eastern Kingdoms stands as one of history's most tumultuous periods. Through the Burning Legion's demonic machinations, the once-noble orcs were transformed into a nearly unstoppable foe and let loose upon Azeroth's unsuspecting denizens. Yet even in the face of the Horde's unparalleled fury, brave heroes risked everything to rise up in defense of the . . .Rise of the Horde Before the savage orcs began their rampage across Azeroth, they were a proud shamanic race native to the world of Draenor. The cunning demon Kil'jaeden saw lethal potential in the clan-based orcs, and thus he set about molding them into the Horde--a single, brutal force driven by an all-consuming thirst for destruction. But the foul demonic magic that granted the Horde its immense strength began consuming the orcs from within, ultimately threatening to destroy everything that they once were.The Last Guardian: Long ago a group of magi known as the Council of Tirisfal was formed to fight a secret war against the sinister demons of the Burning Legion. To this end, the council imbued a single champion with enormous power to act as the world's guardian. Medivh was one such Guardian of Tirisfal, and he was expected to be the greatest who had ever lived. Yet he was destined to follow a much darker path. From birth a mysterious evil had tainted the core of his being, and his subsequent struggle against the darkness within himself would precipitate the orcish Horde's invasion of Azeroth . . . and change the world forever.Tides of Darkness: During the First War, the orcish Horde laid waste to the once-great human kingdom of Stormwind. From the ashes of this terrible defeat, however, hope emerged. Anduin Lothar, Champion of Stormwind, rallied the survivors of his ruined homeland and valiantly led them to Lordaeron in the hopes of uniting the human nations into a mighty Alliance that could stand against the Horde and its ruthless new leader, Orgrim Doomhammer. Yet as formidable as Lothar believed the Alliance would be, many humans feared that no force would ever be capable of stopping the Horde's merciless onslaught.Beyond the Dark Portal: In the aftermath of the Second War between orcs and humans, the Dark Portal, a gateway connecting Azeroth to Draenor, was destroyed. The orcs, however, did not abandon their lust for war. Led by the mysterious orc shaman Ner'zhul, a fresh wave of Horde fighters flooded into Azeroth. Even more unsettling was that small bands of orcs intent on something other than mere conquest began scouring Azeroth for powerful artifacts desired by their sinister leader. To counter the Horde's dark schemes, only one option remained for the Alliance: a suicide mission into the orcs' ruined homeworld of Draenor.

    It includes a full account of Tolkien the linguist, as well as telling how to write all the languages, with guides to grammar and pronunciation, and a complete dictionary of the fourteen languages.Here is a book to deepen and enhance our enjoyment of those classics of Middle-earth, The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.Ruth Noel teaches remedial and developmental reading in Riverside, California. She is the author of The Mythology of Middle-earth, on the relation between The Lord of the Rings and European myth in general. "The author is convincing and fascinating as she connects Tolkien's fantasies with the hallowed myths of other cultures." - Publishers Weekly

    No complex terminology. ★FREE eBook Download inside★ Your dad taught you how to play Chess, but he didn’t teach you much. You already know how to checkmate and move the pieces, but let’s face it, your friends and family still beat you more than you’d like. You don't just want to play. You want to win and possibly CONQUER ALL YOUR FRIENDS! You sly dog! I know the feeling and I’m here to help. My name is Maxen R. Tarafa and I’m a Skill Artist. In a few short months, I went from a struggling post-beginner to an adept intermediate player and doubled my Chess ability by teaching myself. In this book, I show you how you can double, even triple, your Chess ability like I did, but faster. But I’m going to tell you right now. My method is rather controversial. You see, most chess “experts” bombard you with complex Chess notation (QxB6?) and expect you to read complex Chess terminology. I don’t do that. I’ll give you a cheat sheet of what you NEED to remember, and you’ll be off to the Chess boards and killing Queens like it’s nobody’s business. In this book, you learn: -How to play your first 10 moves so YOU control the game (Chess Openings) -How to use 3 techniques (or Chess tactics) like bringing light sabers to a knife fight -How to identify one weakness, if you simply recognize it, you can win in one move -How to cut your training time in ½. Know what to study and apply brainhacking techniques. -How to avoid common beginner mistakes with time-tested Chess strategy -Where to find FREE Chess websites, apps, videos, and technology to double your skills -How to use the one principle I taught to Eduardo that took him from losing miserably to unbeatable -How to “bend” the Chess rules with little-known special moves (it’s not cheating!) -And more I taught a 9-year-old these principles and a week later he was beating 17-year-olds. Anyone, even you, can learn how to double your Chess ability by learning a few easy principles. You’ll even learn how to speed your decision-making and play speed chess. If you’re looking for quick and easy Chess instruction to double your skills, but don’t want to learn complex terminology and notation, this book is for you! Don’t let your friend, brother, dad, or roommate beat you again! Join the Casual Chess revolution! Plain-English Chess Instruction for Casual Players, Post-Beginners, and People who Want to Learn Fast! ★Now Available in Paperback! To buy paperback, scroll up and click the Paperback link (by the cover image)★

    Her best friend disappears in the middle of the night leaving Reychel to face her fifteenth birthday, the day her master burns his brand into the back of her bald head, alone. She's sheltered from the outside world and doesn't have any hope for escape, but when people desperate for freedom ask for her help can Reychel learn to believe in herself?Oubliette (released June 2011):Reychel thought she was finally free. She was wrong.Everyone saw her gift of prophecy as a blessing, but her gift is uncontrollable. No one alive can teach her to manipulate her unique gift and the answers she needs lie buried within a madman’s journals.She’s thrust in the midst of a brewing war and the only uniting factor for her people is their belief in the Prophet. Will Reychel learn to control her gift or will she be forced to deliver a false prophecy that could lead her people into a violent war?Severed (released November 2011):Reychel knows her gift of prophecy will lead to madness and now she is at her most vulnerable. The enemy army will attempt to sever her from everything she's ever known: her homeland, her friends, Mark, and her gift. Even at her weakest, she refuses to give up on her desire to end the war between the Malborn and the Serenians. Reychel would do anything, even come back from the dead, to conquer the enemy and reunite with Mark.

    FDR's New Deal has redefined American politics. Taxes are at an all-time high. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has brought a fear of total annihilation. The rise of secret government agencies and sanctions on business has many watching their backs. America's sense of freedom is diminishing . . . and many are desperate to take that freedom back.Among them is a great dreamer, an immigrant who pulled himself from the depths of poverty to become one of the wealthiest and admired men in the world. That man is Andrew Ryan, and he believed that great men and women deserve better. And so he set out to create the impossible, a utopia free from government, censorship, and moral restrictions on science--where what you give is what you get. He created Rapture---the shining city below the sea.But as we all know, this utopia suffered a great tragedy. This is the story of how it all came to be . . .and how it all ended.

    You spend hours setting up the perfect encounter, your players are out for blood, the swords are drawn—and then you realize that you've forgotten to build statistics for the enemy characters. Or perhaps your players go left when you expect them to go right, leaving you without any encounters prepared.Such problems are a thing of the past with the NPC Codex. Inside this tome, you'll find hundreds of ready-made stat blocks for nonplayer characters of every level, from a lowly forest poacher to the most majestic knight or ancient spellcaster. Whether you're planning out future adventures or throwing together encounters right at the table, this book does the work so you can focus on playing the game.Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex is a must-have companion volume to the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook and Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. This imaginative tabletop game builds on more than 10 years of system development and open playtests featuring more than 50,000 gamers to create a cutting-edge RPG experience that brings the all-time best-selling set of fantasy rules into the new millennium.The 320-page Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex includes:- Statistics for more than 300 characters, including at least one for every level of every class in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook.- Tactical suggestions for every character, ensuring that you get the most out of each individual's gear and abilities in a fight.- Tons of flavorful names and backgrounds to give characters personality, plus ideas for using them in both combat and roleplaying situations.- Statistics for characters with lower-powered NPC classes to help populate your world with ordinary people, as well as characters with specialized prestige classes.- Animal companion statistics for druids and rangers, from level 1 through level 20.- Multiple versions of each Pathfinder iconic character, perfect for pregenerated player characters.- Encounter groups for conveniently crafting battles on the fly.... and much, much more!Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

    A predator-for-hire in the savage urban world of Shadowrun. You've devoted your life to honing your combat and martial skills. The tools of your trade are airfoil grenades, form-fitting body armor, and an Ares Crusader machine-pistol. An expansion for Shadowrun, the Street Samurai Catalog will let you outfit yourself with the latest equipment available on the black market: retractable hand razors, ultrasonic sights, enhanced reflexes, and maybe a rangefinder for your cybereyes. Whatever you need to get the job done, you can find it here, but it won't be cheap. And remember to watch your back before someone decides to make you yesterday's news.