Jason Ginsburg

Some people think Shakespeare's plays are boring. They see an endless parade of kings and lords, re-enacting the subtle negotiations of a country four centuries old and an ocean away. They'll admit there are a few interesting heroes here and there,…

If you like King Arthur's knights, you should check out Charlemagne's paladins. One advantage the Frankish king has over the British one is that he indisputably existed. He was crowned King of the Franks in 768 and became the first Holy Roman…

I've been watching episodes of Star Trek, both The Original Series and The Next Generation, and I'm struck by how many of the stories are about exploration and the wonder of the unknown. It's right there in the opening sequence: The Enterprise's…

Paramount's recent Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves, proved to be a Guardians of the Galaxy-style romp in a Lord of the Rings-style universe. It's both charming and exciting, pleasing the notoriously fickle audience of D&D players and…

We've all seen Dungeons & Dragons portrayed in movies and TV shows. It's great to see our beloved childhood hobby shown on screen, but unfortunately, it's usually done wrong. This is often for narrative reasons, the same way criminal trials are…

In the late 1980s, TSR began expanding the D&D universe. Forgotten Realms appeared, along with Dark Sun, Ravenloft, and other expansion sets. Perhaps the most daring, and most bizarre, was Spelljammer, which the first rulebook described simply as…

Amateur archaeologist Howard Carter had spent five years digging in the Valley of the Kings, looking for an intact tomb that hadn't been looted by grave-robbers. In November of 1922, as the money and the patience of his patron Lord Carnarvon was…

After the huge success of Dungeons & Dragons, its creator, TSR, began creating new games. First came the espionage game Top Secret in 1980. Soon after came the roaring-20s game Gangbusters. And in 1982 came Star Frontiers. The game, edited by Steve…

Some of the most thrilling, memorable moments in fantasy storytelling have been battles. Think of Lord of the Rings' Battle of the Pelennor Fields or Game of Thrones' Battle of the Bastards. Massive armies clashing in a single epic combat that can…

After writing articles about historical witchcraft, several modern-day pagans reached out to me. They told me their faiths still exist today—and are still sometimes persecuted. I wanted to help bring their religions to a wider audience. I spoke to…

If I asked you to list the components of a role-playing game, you'd probably say character sheets, miniatures, and dice. Multi-sided "chance cubes" help decide whether actions and attacks performed by player-characters are successful, and determine…

From 1925 to 1956, Universal Studios produced three dozen horror films, with monster characters that have become legendary: the Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, the Mummy, the Invisible Man, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Wolf…

If you liked Star Wars... Roger Corman is known as the “King of the B’s,” cranking out cheap films in the 50s and 60s. So he must have truly caught space opera fever after Star Wars came out in 1977, because he invested $2 million, his largest sum…

Most of Universal Studios' classic horror films come from literature: Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Phantom of the Opera were all novels. One exception is The Wolf Man. That movie, and the modern werewolf…

First there was Cyberpunk, a dystopian futuristic setting pioneered by authors like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Cyberpunk’s official definition is “a genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by…

Sure it would be cool to have super-strength. Or turn invisible. Or fly. But there are other super-abilities out there that can be just as useful when tracking down criminals, solving mysteries, or even battling bad guys. They may not be flashy. But…