Karavansara

East of Constantinople, West of Shanghai

Category Archives: My Projects


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Shameless Plug: RE:CON after three months

On the first day of August me and my brother launched our small-scale venture, RE:CON Service, a fast, cheap and reliable research outfit aimed at writers and game designers.
Research is important – no matter what some people think – and sometimes you can’t invest a week researching details for a story you will write in one afternoon.
It’s just anti-economic.
That’s where RE:CON comes to the rescue: you drop us a line, we discuss the depth and width of what you are looking for, we agree on time and budget1, and you get a report covering what you needed.

RE:CON LOGO large

So how did it go? Continue reading →


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Getting away from it all – sort of

So today it transpired I needed a LONG vacation.
I will not bother you with the details – let’s just say that periodically my unbound love for humanity sort of becomes less-unbound-than-usual.

And because I can’t afford a vacation right now – nor will I be able to afford it in the foreseeable future – the only way to do it is to drop everything and pick up a good book.
Two, actually.
One paper-bound and another in digital format.
Something different and good and diverting.
I always keep a good stock of “in case of need break the glass” books – and when depression and sadness reach the limit, that’s exactly what I do, and that’s where I go. Continue reading →


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Marina Warner’s Stranger Magic

strangermagicsbookscanWell, this is the week dedicated to the Arabian Nights, or so it seems.
So why not go on and talk about another good book I will be quite happy to find the time and re-read, not just because it will be fun research for the Mana Bros Alam al Mithral project, but most of all because it is one of the ten best literary essays I ever read. And I kid you not.
The book is Marina Warner’s Stranger Magic and I have bored to death all my friends, trying to push it on them, and now I guess it’s your turn. Continue reading →


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35.000 and 54

2454413079_26914b4897A short meaningless report: yesterday we passed the 35.000 views this year on Karavansara.
Which is a lot or not much, depending on your politics, but most of all is the total of views for the year 2015.
We reached last year’s result with 54 days still to go.
And this, despite the last months having been anomalous for many reasons.
Which means the blog is growing, and I’ll do all in my power to push Karavansara forward in these seven remaining weeks.
Because numbers and stats are meaningless – but it’s good to know the blog is appreciated.
So thank you everybody, for motivating me to do better.


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Other People’s Pulp: Tancredi Scarpelli

novelle-arabeIn a comment to yesterday’s post I mentioned the Italian-language 1931 Nerbini edition of the Arabian Nights, mentioning that it is still available through eBay and antiquarian bookstores and used books stalls, and that the 130 illustrations by Tancredi Scarpelli alone are worth the price of admission.
Well, why not do a gallery of Scarpelli’s various illustrations?

Tancredi Scarpelli was born in 1866, and is traditionally connected with Nerbini, publisher in Florence.
Through a long career Scarpelli illustrated classics (The Bethroted, The Divine Comedy), adventure novels (The Three Musketeers, a lot of books bi Emilio Salgari), and history books for young readers. He also created the artwork for comic-book editions of the adventures of Nick Carter, Nat Pinkerton, Giuseppe Petrosino and Lord Lister.
He died in 1937.
What follows is a small selection of his work. Continue reading →


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Tits & Sand: the roleplaying game

2nro4lsBack when I opened this blog, one of the titles I had on my list was Alam al Mithral, an expression from Arabian philosophy which means The place where ideas are real.
It was quite good, but too long and too easy to spell wrong, I thought.
That, of course, was before I discovered to some this blog was Karavansahara.
But that’s another story.
Anyway, it looks like in 2017 I’ll finally get the opportunity to use that title – for a roleplaying game I will develop together with my brother, based on a new gaming engine.
A nice, swift, cool game of Tits & Sand – or Arabian Nights Adventures if you prefer.
Or Oriental Fantasy.
You get the idea. Continue reading →


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Jumping off airplanes for science

robo-cover-600pxTwo days ago I mentioned Humble Bundle as a source of reading matter and games on the cheap – and just today I squandered 1 buck for one of their latest offers.
The current bundle (that will remain available for another 12 days) is a treasure trove of roleplaying games based on popular narrative franchises: George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, Charles Stross’ Laundry universe (Cthulhu and espionage – what could be better), Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Universe, Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and yes, the true reason why I spent that buck… Clevinger & Wegener’s Atomic Robo.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love both the Stross and the Sanderson novels, and while I never got into the Dresden Files a lot, I appreciate that universe too.
But Atomic Robo… ah!

For the uninitiated (let’s quote Wikipedia)

Atomic Robo is an American comic book series depicting the adventures of the eponymous character, a self-aware robot built by a fictional version of Nikola Tesla.

And it’s just a lot of fun. Continue reading →