More Call of Cthulhu Recommendations

OK, since you were all kind enough to offer me advice on various scenarios (of which I’m still weighing my options between running something pre-fab or writing my own), I thought I’d make another request.

My Call of Cthulhu game library—as opposed to my fiction library which is much greater—is of modest size. It contains the following:

Call of Cthulhu 1st edition boxed set (second printing)
Call of Cthulhu 4th edition
Call of Cthulhu 6th edition
Call of Cthulhu 30th Anniversary Edition (en route)
Call of Cthulhu d20
Keeper’s Kit (5th edition)

Delta Green
Delta Green: Countdown

H.P. Lovecraft’s Arkham
H.P. Lovecraft’s Kingsport
H.P. Lovecraft’s Dreamlands
H.P. Lovecraft’s Dunwich

Secrets of Morocco
Secrets of New York

Ramsey Campbell’s Goatswood
Miskatonic University: The University Guide Book
Cthulhu Invictus
Tatters of the King

Our Ladies of Sorrow
New Tales of the Miskatonic Valley

On PDF, I have Beyond the Mountains of Madness, the Quick Start, and one or two other adventure compilations. I also have the Encyclopedia Cthulhiana which bridges the gap between Mythos fiction and game aid.

My question to those of you who play is “Aside from the above, are there any Cthulhu supplements you’d consider indispensible?” My interests lay more to the classic era as opposed to modern, but I am anticipating the reissue of Cthulhu by Gaslight supposedly coming in late summer. I would love to own a set of the original Grenadier investigator minis and a print copy of Escape from Innsmouth, but for expense and/or availability reasons, those remain beyond my grasp for the moment.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Tales of Dragons and the Shaping of Perceptions and Expectations

In the nearly three-years that I’ve been following and participating in this thing of ours, I have read hundreds if not thousands of blog and forum posts written by people who wanted to muse upon the hobby and the sources that birthed and shaped it. These discussions invariably lead to what gaming products form the core of fantasy roleplaying by virtue of establishing the tropes and atmosphere that we now take for granted almost forty years later.

These posts typically contain the usual suspects list of sources: For fiction, it the great Appendix N and the authors and works listed therein; for game products the titles “Keep on the Borderlands,” “Tomb of Horrors,” “Against the Giants,” “Arduin,” “Wilderlands,” and other appear again and again for good reason. But perceptions and expectations are formed by unique, personal experience, shaped by forces as varied as those affected by them. It is perhaps due to this that I have yet to see anyone speak of the book that had more effect on my nascent understanding and expectations of the game than any other. It is time to put that to rights.

It was Christmas of 1981. My interest in fantasy role-playing was formed the previous holiday season while visiting relatives and I was given a copy of the Moldvay Basic set earlier in that year. As I opened my presents, I found a slim parcel mixed amongst them. It was the right shape and size for an adventure module (something I had undoubtedly asked for), but when I opened it I discovered something else awaiting me. I was now the owner of a special issue of Dragon magazine entitled Dragontales.

This anthology of stories was the first (and to my knowledge, only) collection of fantasy fiction produced under a separate cover by Dragon Publishing. Released in August of 1980 under the editorship of Kim Mohan, the book features ten fantasy short stories written by a collection of authors ranging from the renowned to the unknown—some are even quite surprising.

In the months and years to come, I would pour over this anthology again and again, reading and rereading each story within until I knew them by heart. They covered quite a gamut of style so it was difficult to grow bored with them. Some were pulp sword and sorcery; others, trippy fantasy whose roots grew out of the psychedelic landscape of the previous two decades.

Remember that this was 1981, a time before TSR began churning out game fiction by the truckload and the fantasy genre in general was not as glutted as it stands today. My exposure was swords & sorcery fantasy had so far been limited to the Bass-Rankin productions of The Hobbit and Return of the King and whatever my local library had on its shelves—which was not a lot. To me, Dragontales was a fantastical feast that not only whetted my parched thirst for fantasy but also used the races, classes, monsters, and terms that I had been reading about for the last year in my rulebooks. It was a dream come true.

Somewhere along the line I lost my copy of the book. It was probably discarded after I read the thing to pieces and could recount the tales within by memory. As time went on, the stories began to grow dim and my interests moved on to other things. The market was now flooded with fantasy and straight-out game fiction, so the novelty of these stories was no longer there. It is not surprising that Dragon never produced a second anthology of tales.

Just a few years ago, not long after I started this blog, I discovered that a friend owned a copy of Dragontales and I asked to borrow it so that I could reacquaint myself with its stories and authors once again. I requested this with more than a little trepidation. Would the stories stand up to my memories of them after all these years or would a more mature palette find them lacking and result in another fond childhood reminiscence sullied by an ill-advised revisit to the halcyon days of the early 1980s? To my delight, I found that the stories not only retained their ability to entertain but in some cases were actually improved by a greater understanding of both the genre and its authors.

Looking back on those stories again also made me realize how much they helped shape my attitudes and expectations about D&D. With the exception of Leiber’s Fahfrd and Mouser stories (which I didn’t read until college), no other single source had more of an impact on my fantasy campaigns than these ten stories. Reading them again was not only a passport back to my own youth, but also to a different time in fantasy fiction and the gaming business. It was a rougher, wilder time back then, not sleek and slick as the pages of a splatbook like they are now. Dragontales reflects that time, a snapshot of a place impossible to return to.

This past weekend I asked my friend if I could borrow the book to take that journey once again. In the weeks to come I will be doing a post on each of the tales included in the anthology, talking about how they influenced me and returning the favor by using the stories as inspiration (or outright burglary) for new game material. I’ve started to read the first story today and I can already feel the mixture of nostalgia, expectation, and sheer entertainment rising up within me. In fact, I had to break my resolution regarding the purchase of books this year and order my very own copy of Dragontales to replace the one I lost long again. Until it shows up though, I have the borrowed version to peruse. If you’d like to come along for the trip and are missing a copy of your own, both Noble Knight and Amazon have some for sale. Place your order now or dig out your own copy and meet me back here next week when we take a look at “The Wizards Are Dying” by John L. Jenkins.

Portents, Plans, and Expectations

A fresh year. Is there anything else so full of possibility?

Having had a few weeks to recoup, catch up, and prepare for 2011, I’ve made some plans, decisions, and resolutions like many of you. Some regard my gaming, others are more personal improvements, but all are intended to make 2011 at least a moderately better year than 2010. Let’s keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

The biggest decision, and also the one that most impacts you, the reader, is that I’m 99% certain that this will be the last year of The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope. For several reasons, I’ve come to the realization that I’ve taken this particular blog as far as I can based on its original mission statement. Rather than slowly grind it into the muck of mediocrity, if not outright suckitude, I’d prefer to call it a night while the Society is still a shadow of its once-pertinent self.

As it stands at the moment, I suspect that I’ll keep the place running long enough to finish off the Stonehell sequel, my Labyrinth Lord campaign, and the one last project of mine that has been shuffled to the backburner so many times I can’t remember what it was that I started cooking. The blog’s 3rd anniversary would be in August, and ending the blog after a respectable three-year run appeals to me greatly, so we’re looking at the “Closed” sign going up towards the end of the year and not tomorrow. I hope that is a some consolation.

This is not a decision I made lightly or in anger. It’s just that time. I never signed up to keep this place running in perpetuity and I’m feeling anxious to try the next thing in my life. I’ll be continuing to create material for other venues and I’ll likely keep Secret Antiquities running, but the Society is entering its twilight months—unless something changes dramatically. One should avoid saying “never” or “always” after all.

Speaking of the Stonehell sequel, this will be the year for it. I hate leaving projects unfinished and despite my tendency to take up other people’s offers of work in lieu of my own, I will get the sequel completed and available by the time the year or blog winds down (whichever comes first). I will do my best to keep the quality of the sequel equal to or better than its predecessor. To do anything less would be an insult to you fine people. Remember though that quality takes time, so don’t expect the sequel out next week. And no I don’t have the slightest idea when it will appear yet either. You’ll be amongst the first to know if you continue to follow this electronic fish-wrapper in the coming months.

Expect to see my name attached to at least one project put out this year by another entity. I’ll speak more on it/them when I’m allowed, but all you need to know now is that they are very cool things.

Perhaps my most outrageous resolution for this year is to not buy any books until I’ve finished the humongous backlog that accumulated last year. As a bibliophibian, this will be a difficult one to adhere to, but I’m pretty adroit at keeping to things I put my mind to. I’m allowing myself to purchase a tome or three if I get a gift certificate or the like to a bookstore, but other than that, I’m on the book wagon until the box of to-be-reads is empty. And yes, this includes game books too.

I’ll be trying to reduce my backlog of unpainted miniatures as well, but that’s what every mini painter says at this time of year.

That’s where I stand on this warm January afternoon here in New York. I’m looking forward to the coming year not as a time of endings but of new beginnings. I hope that you can join me in this outlook. I’ll miss this place from time to time once it’s closed, but I expect whatever comes next will be at least equal in its utility, coolness, and all out funkiness. But that’s a long way down the road right now, so let’s have some fun while she lasts.

Ten Things I Wish I Bought Back Then So I Could Have Them Now

Since it’s the time for holiday wish lists and general greed, I’ve been thinking about what I really wish I could have as gifts this year. These presents are not realistic by any means, but since I’m a simple man and all I really want is the new Social Distortion album and for somebody to destroy Mumford & Sons so I never have to hear “Little Lion Man” ever again, it’ll take a theoretical flight of fancy to finish stuffing my stocking.

Limiting myself to 10 items for 2010, they are, in no specific order, the gifts that I wish I had bought for myself back before they went out of print or became incredibly expensive to procure. Almost all of them are pure nostalgia fodder. I’ve specifically left role-playing game books and other supplements off the list as they represent an entire category of their own, one considerably longer than ten items.

10) A set of official Wraith: The Oblivion Dice. When it comes to role-playing games, I’m not a completionist except for two titles: Gamma World and Wraith: The Oblivion. I’ve mentioned that I own every Gamma World edition since its debut. I also have the majority of W:tO stuff. Nevertheless, the dice set never made its way into my possession. I think most of the run of these ended up in a landfill somewhere because they‘re impossible to find, even in the dark alleys of the internet.

9) A Dragonbone: We used to mock this thing mercilessly back in the day, not only because of the adolescent hilarity found in anything called a “Dragonbone,” but because we figured how lame were you if you couldn’t be bothered to actually throw some dice? (An opinion I still have.) Now I want one for simple nostalgia sake and to be able to “whip out my Dragonbone” the next time I’m at a convention and the guy next to me is using a friggin’ iPhone app instead of real dice. I’d show him some hard-core, old school boneage!

8) A Gryphon Games Miniature Case: Another cool product from the back pages of Dragon. I couldn’t paint worth a damn back then, but the idea of having what I imagined to be a massive treasure chest to keep them in was too cool to not want. These things didn’t leave so much as an electronic ripple on the Web, making me think that their plywood construction and brown leatherette covering failed to hold up to the passage of time.

7) A few pads of Armory 1/10” x 1/20” Graph Paper: I posted about this stuff back in October. I haven’t got much of it left, but if I had known then how much this stuff still instills me with a sense of pleasant nostalgia and memories of happy afternoons drawing dungeon maps, I would have bought a pallet of the stuff back in the mid-1980s.

6) Dungeons & Dragons Computer Labyrinth Game: I remember playing this as a kid and I wasn’t all that impressed with it after a few rounds with it, but I never had one of my own: a fact my friend Greg used to lord over me. Alas, that hole in my psyche can never be healed and this is just a vain attempt to fill that emptiness.

6) Kenner’s Alien board game: I actually owned this as a kid and it probably contributed to the irrational fear of xenomorphs that still plagues me to this day. The fact that there was a children’s board game published that was based on an R-rated move with a rape subtext still boggles my mind. Blame the Star Wars merchandising machine for this one. I’d love to have this in my closet again—even though the idea of an actual Alien in my closet makes me lose bladder control.

5) A carton of assorted Presto Magix transfers: Only tentatively gaming-related as some were historical or science-fiction in nature. I can’t even guess as to how many of these I bought at the corner variety store in my youth. Each came with a fold-out background the depicted some exotic vista and a sheet of color transfers that you rubbed over with a pencil to affix to the background. It allowed any kid, even the ones like me who couldn’t draw worth a damn, to create cool action scenes, provided you didn’t mind them not actually performing any actions.

4) A complete set of the Gregg Press Fafhrd and Grey Mouser books: I mentioned in a previous post that this edition was my introduction to Leiber’s famous twain. I own scattered editions of more recent vintage, but to have the orange cover books from the 1970s on my shelf would make me a happy man.

3) All of the Grenadier AD&D miniatures boxed sets: Grenadier’s D&D minis and this game will forever be entwined together in my brain. I owned only a few single pieces in my youth, but each time I saw an advert for them in Dragon or encountered someone who owed these pieces, usually exquisitely painted, made me think I wasn’t getting the full D&D experience. I started refurbishing some of my old miniatures just before the “Out of the Box” game and was reminded that, as clunky and chunky as Grenadier’s early work was, those pieces remain the epitome of game miniatures to me.

2) A vintage set of Crossbows and Catapults: True story—In 1983, my brother and I were playing a game of “Crossbows and Catapults” on our bedroom floor. At the precise moment one of our walls (I forget whose) went crumbling down under a fired disc, a tremendous explosion rocked the neighborhood. Although we initially believed we had somehow unleashed Armageddon by means of a siege warfare game, our father quickly (and somewhat disappointingly) informed us that the Grucci Fireworks Co., located in the next town over, had exploded. That remains one of weirdest moments of synchronicity I've ever experienced in my life and I’d like to have a set again so that my brother and I could possibly destroy other local landmarks.

1) My true #1 is something I’d rather keep to myself. Suffice to say it would require a little bit of time-travel and whole lot of “I wish I knew then what I know now.” The best things in life aren’t things, you know. Barring that, however, how about a complete run of original ROM the Space Knight comic book series? I'm sure it wouldn't stand up to my memories of it, but I remember the Dire Wraiths as being pretty bad ass, largely due to the fact that they regularly killed folks, which was pretty radical for a comic book at that time. I never owned the ROM action figure, but the books had a big impact on my development...which probably isn't a good thing to reveal.

The Dragonlance Chronicles: Twenty Years Later

And I went down my old neighborhood
The faces have all changed there's no one left to talk to
And the pool hall I loved as a kid
Is now a 7-11

- Social Distortion, “Story of My Life”

Over the weekend, I completed reading The Annotated Chronicles, the omnibus that compiles the original Dragonlance trilogy of Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of Winter Night, and Dragons of Spring Dawning, along with commentary by Tracy Hickman, Margret Weis, Jeff Grubb, Michael Williams, and others, into a single, massive tome. I haven’t been hobbled by such a bulky book since I read Stephen King’s It. It took several weeks to navigate my way from cover to cover, but that Herculean task is now complete, leaving me free to reflect upon a trilogy that I last read some twenty years ago.

It would be easy to dismiss the trilogy with a wave of the hand and say, “It doesn’t hold up well.” I certainly wouldn’t be the first to do so. But after finishing the book(s) and weighing my opinions, I came to the conclusion that the text itself was not the source of my disappointment. After all, the book itself hasn’t changed. I have.

As Peter Graham once observed, “The Golden Age of Science Fiction is twelve.” One can surmise that the Golden Age of Fantasy is also located around that age. Although, like many of my age group, my initial exposure to modern fantasy (as opposed to fairy tales and Arthurian legends) was with Tolkien by way of The Hobbit and the Rankin/Bass TV movie, the Dragonlance trilogy was my first exposure to mass market fantasy.

My acquaintance with the series came in a round-about manner. I first played through the module DL2 – Dragons of Flame with a childhood friend’s older brother as DM. I later picked up that module on my own and became aware of the novels that went along with the adventures. A lucky find at my neighborhood bookstore (one of those lost kinds that existed in an actual storefront and had a cat lazily basking in the sun from atop the counter) put the third book of the trilogy in my hands. I’m not quite sure that I eventually worked my way through the series in reverse order, but it is entirely possible. This would have been in 1985, the year I was thirteen.

Given the tumultuous time that adolescence is, it’s no surprise that the original trilogy spoke to me on a primordial level. The books had that superb young adult fiction mix of violence, humor, nobility, sex, tragedy, and troubled heroes that tells every boy or girl on the cusp of adulthood that these books were written especially for them. The titles and heroes of these potent brews might change from generation to generation, but the language this type of fiction speaks in the ear of the adolescent is a powerful one.

Alas, I’m no longer thirteen.

Rereading those tales, I was still able to see the parts that stirred my imagination, my emotions, and some new, unfamiliar urges as a youth, but the magic of the books has faded greatly. Perhaps familiarity with the books is partially to blame, but I suspect that the real culprit is simply time, experience, and the grind of adulthood. One can never go home again, no matter how hard we wish we could. We might catch brief glimpses of our golden years of youth, but these are always seen as a laughing shade that soon darts around a dingy street corner. I expect that the books still contain the words of power in the eyes of an adolescent, but it is up to each generation to choose their fantasy heroes, and I am not certain that the Dragonlance series will ever assume a place amongst those timeless fantasy series that are constantly rediscovered by young adults.

So despite a bittersweet reunion with my youth, what else did The Annotated Chronicles have to offer? Unfortunately, not nearly as much as I had hoped for.

I suspect that the powers that produce annotated books and arrange commentary on movies have very different expectations about what the audience if looking for than I do. I have yet to find one that satiates me. When annotations and commentary are being assembled, I believe the common school of thought must be to allow the original material room to shine through and be enjoyed on its own merits. That’s a lousy school of thought in my opinion. I already know the original material. The reason I’m listening to the commentary or reading the annotated version is because I want to know everything that led to the original material. Give me every bit of trivia, anecdote, backstage drama, allusion, homage, etc. et al that you can think of. Drown out the original material and feed my hunger!

The Annotated Chronicles starts out well. The first book is heavily annotated with recollections from Hickman and Weis (Hickman gets primary credit here since he contributes the most to the annotated omnibus) about the design of the Dragonlance project, the writing of the novels, bits and pieces about D&D for the unacquainted, and other entertaining trivia. Some of it I’ve heard before (Terry Phillips’ rendition of Raistlin during playtesting basically created the character we now know); others are completely new (TSR’s lawyers, worried about diluting the strength of the trademark “Dragonlance”, originally insisted that the eponymous weapon be referred to as the “a dragonlance lance”). As the omnibus progresses, however, we get less annotation and the ones that appear are less entertaining and/or enlightening and more of the “Estwilde is the flat area south of Kalaman” variety. A shame, really, as I had high hopes that the series my finally meet my expectations for behind the scenes information.

Most telling about my return to the land of Krynn was how much my own definition of fantasy has changed over the years. The world of Dragonlance is so far removed from what I consider to be my default concept of a fantasy world, especially one for D&D, that it’s almost as if we are speaking different languages. Even in my youth, Krynn seemed to be composed of small detailed areas separated by vast gulfs of nebulous land. If there wasn’t a story or module that took place there, it was difficult to gauge what Krynn was like. I suspect that its “design by committee” origin has something to do with Krynn’s vagueness.

I know what was being attempted with kender, gully dwarves, tinker gnomes, draconians, etc. And while I applaud the efforts to turn what had become staid aspects of the game into something fresh and exciting, the designs chosen in no way reflect what I might have done with similar material and intent. My tastes run in contrary directions. The same goes for dragonback aerial combat: neat, but not for me.

Lest you think I came here today to completely tear my childhood to shreds, I can still look upon parts of the trilogy with fondness. Raistlin Majere, the original TSR anti-hero, retains much of his power to affect the disaffected youth, and although I find the relationship between he and his twin to be a little more ham-handedly written than I did twenty years ago, black-robed Raistlin and his Tower of High Sorcery will remain one of the better “oohhhh, eeevviiillll…” characters to come out of TSR’s book lines.

In a related vein, can you believe I also forgot about death knights somewhere down the line? Not just Lord Soth, but all death knights? They completely dropped off my creative radar at one point and I wasn’t reminded of their existence in the D&D multiverse until I reread the Chronicles. I think my players are about to rue the day I decided to revisit my youth.

On the side of good, I found myself warming much more to the character of Sturm than I did during my youth. Having reached adulthood and gained a greater sense of how rare nobility and self-sacrifice is in our day and age, Sturm comes across as being a much more faceted character than I remembered.

The doomed relationships in the trilogy, those of Sturm and Alhana Starbreeze and Gilthanas and Silvara, had more resonance this time around as well. Again, this is perhaps due to a more experienced worldview on my part. Whatever the reason, the two relationships mentioned above, although they are minor ones compared to much more prominent love triangle of Laurana-Tanis-Kitiara, possessed a greater gravitas for me. Maybe I’m just a sucker for a tragic ending…

Looking back, I’m torn on whether I should have revisited the original trilogy. There’s a reason we have a past: it’s the place we keep all the things we either no longer want in our lives or store the glories we don’t want tarnished by age. But an unexamined life is not worth living, so mayhap brushing the dust off of the treasures of our youth is necessary to move forward with our lives. We each aspire to be the Master of Past and Present, after all.

I possess, but have yet to read, a copy of The Annotated Legends. I feel as if I should revisit that series as well, for I remember it being superior to the original Chronicles, largely because of the reduced cast size and an emphasis on the more complex characters. I remain hopeful that its annotations may finally meet my criteria as well. More time must pass, however, before I return to the wondrous lands of adolescence and again tread those sunlit paths. Too much nostalgia is no good for us aging dreamers.

Using the Silver Standard

For various reasons, I’m currently considering using a different monetary system in the book that I’m working on. If I were to go this route, I would likely adopt the “silver standard” method of price calculation and monetary rewards (i.e. prices are adjusted to make the silver piece the base economic unit rather than the gold piece). The problem is that I’ve never used this system before and would be a neophyte wandering wide-eyed in a strange land.

My question(s) then to you, gentle reader, is this: For those of you who have used the silver standard in your games, how have you gone about doing so and what was your experience with it? How did you handle monster treasure? Did you bother keeping electrum or platinum in the game? Is there anything else I should know? Any input would be gratefully appreciated.

The Game Store Philosopher’s Stone

Or how to distill crap into quality.

This past summer was pretty scattershot for me. I had a lot on my mind and on my plate, all of which caused me to try and multi-task in order to get things finished. The result: not pretty. I finally have to admit that the older I get, the more I can accomplish by focusing my energy on a single project at a time and following it through to completion. Otherwise I’m left with a slew of half-built bridges in my wake.

The result of my failure to focus was that my brain was firing off in a half-dozen directions at once and that wasn’t a pleasant experience. I’d often find myself lying in bed at night with my mind racing and sleep an elusive goal. I’m thinking of starting a meditation regime in order to learn how to still my mind once in a while. In the meantime, I’m undertaking a much needed clean-up of things and thoughts, starting with that which I can easily accomplish. I’m giving up on trying to read five books at one or rent three movies at a time when a single one will suffice. I’m also going through my storage lock-up and seeing what can be culled from there and rearrange the rest. Some of you may have already benefited from this weeding (and more may still).

That process resulted in me selling off another load of game books to my FLGS. It wasn’t nearly as large a sale as I made a year or so ago, but it did free up some space. The books I parted with were mostly a few stray 3.5 titles, some overlooked White Wolf stuff that missed the first purge, and a couple of board and card games that I knew would never be played. I accrued a little bit of store credit and was happy to be free of the excess.

Then Gen Con came and the owner returned with some new old school swag. This was followed by him buying another collection or two from other gamer looking to clear out space. Since he knows I always have an eye of for the obscure or the true old school book, he pointed out the tubs of books sitting under one of the miniature gaming tables the last time I stopped in. This visit caused the last of my store credit to vanish and me to walk out with more books.

I look at the process as game book alchemy. I’m turning splat book crap into gold at a much reduced exchange rate. A two-foot high pile of books becomes a mere 2” tall stack, but the quality is so much better. For instance, the last exchange turned The Book of Vile Darkness, Miniatures Handbook, Mage: The Ascension, Mage: The Awakening, Dead Magic, the Darkstryder Campaign boxed set, the Quo Vadis board game, and a few assorted other splats and card games into:

That’s a complete 2nd edition of Gamma World (minus the box but in very good if not near-mint condition), Central Casting: Heroes of Legend, and a set of the Traveller little black books (which I have never owned or played, but have been looking for for some time). Not pictured is issue #2 of the gaming magazine Gyphon (a mag I had never heard of) but features an article by M.A.R. Barker on building religions for your campaign, a Traveller “service record” sheet to use when generating a character for that game, and an article on fantasy cartography.

I had already made the decision to choose 2nd edition GW for the forthcoming campaign, but my own copy of the set was getting ragged and a replacement copy was unavailable through Noble Knight or Troll and Toad so I really lucked out on this set. The Traveller books are a little play-worn, but still holding together enough to be used to run a game (which might happen after Gamma World ends circa 2012). I’ve heard good things about Central Casting and most any Paul Jaquays’ title is worth having. I doubt this will see use as intended, but it’s already help jumpstart the imagination (much like a certain other table-filled title does).

Two Down, Three to Go

I got sidetracked and didn't get to my magical mystery project this week, but instead finished up my contribution to a very NiftyCoolWow project I was asked to help out on. That one's been an ongoing concern and I wanted to get it done and out before I got back to playing with my own book. And this one required me to be in a specific frame of mind to do properly. I'm certain people are going to think this book's pretty hip once it comes out, so stay loosely tuned for more details. I let you know the deal once it becomes an actual thing and I get to OK to chat it up.

So for those of you who are waiting on notes regarding artwork or maps, I beg your indulgence. I'll try to get some specifics out to you all by the weekend.

After seven months of working on projects but not getting to the finish line on any of them, it seems the log jam is finally breaking up. That's a balm on my fevered brow. I was beginning to get worried.

Of course, now that slots are appearing on my To Do List, new projects are jabbering for my attentions. I don't know if I'm strong enough to ignore them...

Update on the Cover Artist and Cartographer Hunt

I’ve selected both a cover artist and a cartographer for my still-unnamed project and have provided them with some of the initial material to start work. I believe that I’ve contacted everyone who sent me a letter of interest and samples, but just in case I missed somebody I wanted to make it known that my picks have been made. I’d also like to thank everyone who expressed an interest in helping me make this book a reality.

For those of you who contacted me about doing interior pieces, I’m currently fleshing out my outline for the book so I’m not 100% certain what my interior art requirements are going to be yet. Give me a week or two and I’ll be able to assemble a specific list of pieces I’d like to see represented.

My Next Project Needs a Cartographer and a Cover Artist

Late Friday night, I experienced one of those glorious moments when an idea comes into the head fully formed and ready to be unleashed upon the world. It was as if my brain decided to reward my single-minded determination to get my current book across the finish line after all the trouble it gave me at its inception. At least part of this new project hails from Bat Country and I’m positive that it’s not going to be to everyone’s tastes, but that’s the advantage of a self-published book—nobody but me gets hurt if it turns out to be a stinker. The suck stops here, so to speak. And while I fully expect some folks to turn their noses up at it, I suspect that others will embrace it for being unusual in regards to most of the projects that the OSR has produced up until now. There’s only one way to find out for sure.

Most of the weekend was spent poking and prodding at the idea, trying to see if it would break under rough handling and whether the cold grey light of dawn would reveal its hidden flaws. So far, it remains viable. Yesterday saw me working on the maps for the book, and the fact that they flowed so quickly and easily means that the universe is most certainly trying to tell me something. I see no other option but to just write it as soon as I put the final touches on my current book. It should go fast.

While I’m writing it, I’m going to need some assistance turning my maps into more detailed and attractive pieces. I’ll also need a color cover piece and possibly a logo. This is where you folks come in.

I need someone who can convert my hand-drawn schematics into four black and white maps for me. Three are full pages, one is a half page. They are all non-linear pieces. No straight dungeon hallways on this one. If there were, I could do it myself. Three of the maps are outdoor locations and consist of a fortification, a town, and a wilderness map. The fourth is the fortification interior. I also need someone who isn’t going to dilly-dally since the text is going to be churned out relatively quick.

For the cover piece, I have a particular style in mind, but the parameters are loose and I can relax them if your work impresses me.

This is a paying gig, albeit not one that pays extremely well. Money is tight all around for me, but I want to compensate you for your work. Unless I get really lucky and find someone who can not only do great cartography work but knock my socks off with a cover piece, I’ll likely be looking for two people on this one.

If you’re looking for a little exposure and a little cash, please drop me an email at poleandrope(at)gmail(dot)com expressing your interest and providing me with either samples or links to your work. We can take it from there.

Game Until It Hurts

What a wonderful weekend. You know you’ve been doing some real hardcore gaming when you find yourself physically and mentally exhausted come Sunday night.

On Friday, one of the Watchfires & Thrones players and his wife, another recently-contacted gamer, and me got together for some tabletop games of the non-roleplaying variety. The evening finally closed down around 1 A.M., but it was fairly educational in regards to new, unplayed games.

I discovered, for instance, that I’m some sort of dominoes savant despite not having played the game since I was in short pants. Of course, there was much less trash talking back then too.

Apples to Apples, a game which I’ve often seen on the shelves of numerous stores but never played, turned out to be a great way to get to know your friends and the twisted logic that runs their day-to-day existence. Scoring points for sheer irony also helps make the game a real winner.

The only loser of the bunch for me was Set, which I initially chalked up to not having the necessary mental sharpness to make sets of cards based on attributes they either share or lack. Two-and-a-half hour’s sleep in the previous forty-eight does not a Set master make. The more I think about it, though, I come to realize that my lack of enthusiasm for the game is based on its lack of strategy. The game is all about skill and experience, and there’s no way for an unlucky run or the random unpredictable actions or planning of a rank amateur to upset the course of the game. In the end, it breaks down to four people staring at a bunch of cards and occasionally saying “set!” That’s not my bag, man.

Despite that little drawback, the night was a great one and we’ll definitely be meeting again sometime for more gaming that allows me to actually participate rather than adjudicate. Of course, the night couldn’t end without the subject of a second irregular roleplaying night coming up and being tentatively slated for later on in the summer. That’s a good thing; I’ve got more ideas than the Labyrinth Lord game can handle and I’d like to run a few up the proverbial flagpole before they all die intellectual crib deaths.

Saturday was mostly chores and prep for Sunday’s game, but a gross neglect on my part was addressed. The same player who hosted Friday’s shenanigans had previously asked me about a used bookstore in my hometown. I had to admit that I simply had never been inside the place, although it was often on my mind to investigate it. On Friday, he reported that he and his wife had visited the place and discovered a wonderland of used paperback books. They were planning on visiting the store again on Saturday and offered to meet me there.

Let’s just say I’ve been kicking myself for the last two days as punishment for not going there sooner. I picked up a Ramsey Campbell collection of his Cthulhu Mythos short stories, the third Thieves World book, Three Hearts and Three Lions, and The Forever War for under ten bucks. I would have walked out with much, much more, but the slush pile of books next to my bed prohibits me from buying any more novels until I work through the backlog. But I shall return.

Sunday was Watchfires & Thrones day and, after having to cancel last week’s game due to a failed save vs. poison incurred by some undercooked beef, I was anxious to get back into the swing of things. The game flowed and it was one of those games where much territory was explored and a few fights got crammed in before the time ran out. Unfortunately, our longest-surviving PC is now no more, having proved the adage that it’s best not to play with electricity unless one is wearing rubber boots.

Those of you who read the Archive of the Rotted Moon have no doubt noticed that most of the game recaps feature photos taken during the actual game sessions. It certainly is nice to have a Minister of Propaganda for your gaming group and Rob (also known as Fandomaniac on the OD&D Discussion board) provides photographic evidence of each week’s meet to help entice others to join in on the fun. You can tell which weeks he had to miss because we don’t have pictures of it.

This week, however, introduced a new aspect—video. Rob recorded a few minutes of game play during a fight against the Alien-esque Tomb Herd Broodmares and a snippet or two of that might soon be appearing online. "I Hit It With My Axe" we are not but feel free to check it out once it’s live and nitpick my referee style. If I had known we we’re going to be videotaping the session, I would have shaved.

All in all, it was a great weekend. I’m still feeling creatively drained from the last three days, so I’ll be recouping and trying to get a few blog posts written today to get myself caught up before it’s back to work on the book.