Lyorn's Links

Roleplaying Games
Writing
TV Series, Fandom and Fanfiction
      Episode Guides and the like
      Note on the fanfiction recs
      Fan Fiction: Archives & Multi-Author pages
      Fan Fiction: Other People's Recommondations
      Fan Fiction: Authors' Pages
      Fan Fiction: Story Recommondations
      Fan Fiction: Meta-info
SCA
Web Design
Info & News

Mage: Anders Sandberg' Mage Page hasn't been updated in ages, still contains some very interesting articles and material, esp. for Mage 1st and 2nd Ed.

Mage: If you always wondered what those different factions in Mage were all about, read their Ascension 2000 Campaign Pamphlets! Not only funny, but helpful, too. My personal favorite is the Nephandi one.

World of Darkness: BJ Zanzibar contains loads of homebrewed World-of-Darkness supplements. Sturgeon's Law applies. Hasn't been updated in a while.

White Wolf (general): Ex Libris Nocturnis seems to try being the new Zanzibar, only better. I haven't yet looked into it in detail, but it looks worth investigating. Loads r..e..a..l..l..y slowly, though.

General: Can't think of a name for your character? Here is a collection of links to name lists from all over the world!

General: Tastes Like Phoenix is a WebZine reminding me of the good old days of 'Pyramid' and the 'White Wolf Magazine'. Interesting articles, weird fun. Hasn't been updated for quite some time.

Fun: Speaking of it, how did I live before I knew all about Real Men, Real Roleplayers, Loonies & Munchkins?

Fun: More info I'd hate to have to do without: If I Ever Happen To Become An Evil Overlord, and Tips for all kinds of characters (The Hero, the Hero's Girlfriend, the Evil Overlord's Accountant...) This is framed, so I couldn't link directly. Scroll down to the 'Science Fiction Pages', look at the right side in the 'Humorous' section.

The Turkey City Primer for SF-Workshops merits a new category in this overcrowded link list. Funny, true, to-the-point and useful list of Things To Avoid when writing SF (or most other genres).

Buffy/Angel: I found the Buffy & Angel Transcripts an invaluable resource, whether to look up a wisecrack, to remember timeline or to help me along when my English wasn't up to understanding what was said.

Professionals: The Authorized Guide isn't only *good* -- it still gets updated!

X-Files: This Episode Guide looks cool, and is reasonably up-to-date.

Xena: Whoosh is far more than just an Episode Guide -- but it has one, too.

Note on the fanfiction recs

Some of the stories I have linked to below are rated R or above. Quite a few are slash. Please pay attention to the author's comments and warnings. Don't read anything that's not legal for you to read or that you know you will hate.
If you don't know what 'slash' is, take a look here.

 
Fan Fiction: Archives & Multi-Author pages

Highlander: Whatever you're looking for is probably in the 7th Dimension Archive. Another case for Sturgeon's Law, though, but then, so are most large archives.

Professionals: Speaking of Sturgeon's Law, The Circuit Archive has the highest crap ratio of any archive I ever dug through... but there are still pearls there!

Xena/Hercules: The Less Than Legendary Journeys is a multi-author page with stories, rants and some other stuff most of which is good.

Multifandom: Oblique Publications brings you old Slash Fanzines in pdf-Format. Mostly Professionals, X-Files, Blake's 7 and a few other fandoms.

Fan Fiction: Other People's Recommondations

Multifandom: BadBatz' Recs are mostly slash, and nearly all great.

Highlander: If you feel depressed, give Tenebris' Death Story Recs a try. More tragedy than you can shake a Kleenex at.

Multifandom: The Fannish Butterfly loves interpersonal drama a little more than I do, but the stories she recommends are well-thought out and well-written.

Fan Fiction: Authors' Pages

Kat Allison has written some of the most heart-wrenching and realistic Highlander stories I ever read, in a beautiful, clear language. Some D/M, partly unresolved, partly resolved. For her 'mellow' side, read 'Strata' and 'One For The Road'.

Maygra writes heavy slash, violence and high drama. This is firmly into NC17-territory. Heed her warnings, enter at your own risk. Read 'Shield Brothers', 'Edge of Darkness' and 'Archangel Redeemed' (all HL)

Pamela Rose has no homepage that I know of (more's the pity) but you can find her stories at the Circuit Archive (Pros) and at Shism (H:LotS). She can make a historical romance look good, see 'Arabian Nights' at the Circuit Archive. At the same place you find 'Forget That I Remember and Dream That I Forget', which shows that the dated plot device of amnesia can be put to good use.

Russet MacMillan has very interesting hypothetical questions to ask about HL-style immortality and makes good stories out of them. Read 'Those Who Heal Themselves'. If you feel up to a less-then-happy end, read 'Adam'. She writes (wrote?) a lot of fandoms. Check out her Professionals stories in the Circuit Archive, esp. 'Guilt Trip'.

S.Volk creates places and characters that are incredibly alive and colourful, knows a lot of strange stuff and weird trivia, and writes an really old, wise and fun Methos. Read 'The Good Student' and 'Tall Tale', and maybe 'Millenium' (all HL). Her stories set in the Bronze age ('Adamas', 'That Which Survives') make Methos' (in)famous "The times were different, MacLeod. I was different. The whole bloody world was different!" very convincing.

torch has written two of the X-Files M/K milestones with 'Ghosts' and 'Lovers'. Intelligent stories with good characterization, wrapped around convincing case files. She also writes a lot of fandoms. Her take on arthurian romance 'Sweetly and Steadily' is sweet and clever, with a surehanded style. It also is slash.

Good Buffy Fic used to be as rare as snake shoes, but it has been getting better... and now I found Yahtzee's page, I'm happy. Her stories have everything I'd expect from a good Buffy story: Romance, action, mystery, character... Read 'Phoenix Burning' -- it's a little atypical for her because it's an AU, but it's marvelous! (And it's long. I love long!)

Wombat writes slashy fun and adventure. 'Rapture', an HL/XF crossover is great, and her 'Mary Sue Drinking Game' had me ROTFL. (Wombat's page hasn't been updated in a while.)

And while I'm ROTFL, I'll stay there for a little more and reminiscence 'Bodypaint, Bartabs and Beer', the funniest HL-story ever written. Unfortunately the author, Andie P., seems to have disappered without leaving a website, but you can find the story in the 7th Dimension Archive.

Which leads me neatly to the:

Fan Fiction: Story Recs

HL: 'Episodic Sadie' by BBC is pretty long, but hilarious.

HL/ST: 'A Dish Served Cold' by Kevin H. Robnett has great Richie, great Klingons and great action. Ever wondered how the Klingons would fare in The Game? Here you can find out!

HL: Sylvan's 'Not Just Horsemen Come In Fours' stands out in my mind as the story with the most likable and interesting original characters ever. Plus, it has a scene of Ramirez and Methos walking around England... The sequel, 'Rooted In The Past', is good, too, but rather grim.

HL: I already recommended 'Archangel Redeemed' by Maygra and MacGeorge, but I'm doing so again, because IMO it might be the best HL-fanfic ever written. It even manages to make sense of the Ahriman-Story Arc.

HL: 'Black Sand' by Jeanne Rose is a beautiful Methos/Cassandra concilation story.

HL: 'Comes to Dust' by Sandra MacDonald is the last of a large story arc. It deals with the end of the Game, the Prize, and offers some interesting theories on both (which I 'borrowed' for my story 'A Cat's Tale'.) It left me walking around dazed for the rest of the day -- her vision was so strong that it blotted out everything else.

Oz: That's a fandom I usually don't read, but I'll make an exception for Gemma Files ever since I read her amazing 'My Wife and My Dead Wife'. The story is fast, clever, mean, with dialogue and characterizations sharp enough to cut yourself. If you want happiness, don't go there.

TS: I have a favorite Story in every fandom -- in Sentinel it's 'Snake Oil' by Martha. Scary! Runner-up is 'The Dragon' by Mairead Triste.

Fan Fiction: Meta-info

The Fan Fic Symposium has essays and a message board discussing a variety of topics related to fanfiction.

The Fan's Copyright FAQ has very useful info.

Rebecca Tushnet's paper Legal Fictions: Copyright, Fan Fiction, and a New Common Law focusses on fanfic and fair use.

What is the SCA?

How did this all happen?

You Know You're in the SCA When...someone asks you where you got your chainmail hauberk, and you reply, "In 200 foot rolls at Home Depot."

This Heraldry Clip Art Link Page probably links to every device you're looking for -- now if you could only find it...

Stephan's Florilegum has loads of useful, intersting, strange and fun stuff. My favorite is his collection of SCA stories.

Silverwing's SCA Laws are fun, and useful in keeping your head from becoming too large for your hat (or crown).

The page of the Minstrels' Guild of Drachenwald might not be especially relevant, but it's mine. (Not anymore)

McGregor Historic Games have historical Games, Dice, Playing Cards, and not-quite-as historical T-Shirts for fans of Celtic Knots. They also have the Dumb Patron Questions.

I found this Guide to medieval and renaissance Instruments a useful reference. Best of all, it has lots of pictures and lists of further resources!

Celtic Web Art is beautiful and highly useful, too, which, unfortunately, is not always the same.

In case you didn't notice while looking through my pages :-), I really like Eos' Design

The NCSA (at UIUC) Beginner's Guide to HTML is the thing to read before making your own webpage.

Deja News, now Google, still archives USENET. (Duh!)

If you can't find it, try the Metacrawler.

Slashdot -- News for Nerds. Hardware, Software, Games, Open Source, Zeitgeist and a (sometimes rabid) discussion board.

Space News & Science Fiction is interesting, but beware of the pop-up advertisment -- it's the size of Jupiter.

If you feel that a line of argumentation is rotten, but can't prove it, look up the Informal Fallacies -- you might find it there.

Logic is always a good thing to have.

The same can be said about the Bible. Especially if it's in 28 languages, inlcudes foot notes, cross-references and a text search.

Is tonight's movie on TV worth programming your VCR for? The Internet Movie Database tells you that, and a whole lot of things you never knew you might be interested in some day.