Wildwyck County Map

If you don't follow my spottily updated Secret Antiquities blog, you might not be aware that I'm doing a series for Fight On! magazine that introduces a 1920s historical horror setting for use with GORE and other percentile-based rule systems. The premier article covered the history of Wildwyck County and provides an introduction to the area that will be elaborated on in further detail as the series progresses. Due to what I assume was space restrictions, the black and white map of Wildwyck County that Ravi created was not included with the first article in my Wildwyck series in issue #13 of Fight On! The back cover of the magazine does feature Ravi's aged version of the map in glorious sepia-tone, but I thought that readers might like a clean black and white version for reference and playablility as the series develops. You can download the high-quality version of the map here.

New Horizons

I am without a doubt undergoing a sea change in my gaming preferences. I’ve lost all enthusiasm for level-based fantasy games in the last few months and I now realize that I’ve hit my saturation point. This doesn’t mean I’m done with them for good, but it will be some time before I’m running D&D in any of its myriad forms again. Playing the game is fine; running it is another story.

This also doesn’t mean that I’m finished with writing for them either. In fact, I just finished up my work for another level-based fantasy game and have another contribution in that vein on my schedule. However, when it comes to my personal life, it’s time to change things up.

The downside of this realization is that Stonehell is effectively in stasis for the foreseeable future. I hate to do it, but my lack of interest in writing dungeon adventures is blatantly obvious when I look over what I’ve written so far. I have high expectations for the sequel and I’m not meeting them. I’ll come back and write the second book once I can get excited about the dungeon again. My apologies to those of you who’ve been looking forward to the sequel, but I’m not going to take the sleazy route of writing a piece of shit and asking you for your money for it.

“OK, Mike, if that’s how you feel, what’s next?” I’m glad you ask.

Unless something gets changed (which is entirely possible), the next issue of Fight On! will feature the first of a series of articles I’ve written aimed at “modern” horror and fantasy. I use quotation marks because the default period is the 1920s (all the better to fit classic Call of Cthulhu) rather than the 21^st century. I’m extremely proud of this series, more proud of it than anything I’ve done for my own enjoyment in some time. The article features a map (a glimpse of which is below)done by cartographer Ravi Shankar who I met over at the Cartographer’s Guild. Ravi does some excellent work and I encourage you to check out his portfolio—especially if you’re looking for a good cartographer.

The series details a quaint little portion of upstate New York located in the Hudson Valley region. In real life, the Hudson Valley has a great deal of folklore attached to it. One finds stories of everything from headless horsemen to Bigfoot to UFOs. After I’m done with it, there will be even more weird goings-on reported. The purpose of the series is to present a sandbox setting in which referees can place their own historical horror games. Tired of Arkham? Come visit Wildwyck County. If I do my job correctly though, the place can be used for more than just Call of Cthulhu. It’d make an excellent Colonial Gothic campaign if you roll the clock back or a World of Darkness setting if you advance the timeline ahead. One could even remove all the serial numbers and turn it into a fantasy-based campaign using Lamentations of the Flame Princess or Realms of Crawling Chaos.

The series has personal connections for me, which is one of the reasons it has me so excited. Wildwyck County is based on real life portions of New York State where I had many happy experiences. The chance to return to that place (even in a fictionalized and highly spookified form) is a great pleasure. In fact, it’s even inspired me to return there in real life for a few days to engage in some R&R&R (rest and relaxation and research). I plan on taking some photos to use in future articles to support the artwork I’ve already contributed (chosen, but not created by me, thankfully) for the initial article. 

Connected to the ‘Wyck (as the locals call their home)are the eternal autumnal lands of the October Country. I’ve been rambling about and designing for the October Country for over two years now on the blog Secret Antiquities and it represents my second big project. I’ve got enough material to begin playtesting the setting and I hope to assemble the finished material into a book once I’ve worked the kinks out. If I had to pick a work that I’d consider my magnum opus, the October Country would be it. I call it my Rosetta Stone setting because any story I want to tell—fantasy, horror, intrigue, pulp, or weirdness—can find a home in the October Country. It’s a personal place, but one I hope has enough common touchstones to be universal.

I’m not sure how I’ll handle that setting in the future. I’d like to see it in print, but I’m not certain I want to go down the road of self-publishing again. I’ve gotten lazy and like it when all I have to do is string the words together and let somebody else worry about the art, the editing, the layout, etc. Unfortunately, I’m hesitant to relinquish ownership of the material, so self-publishing may be the only course. But that’s all carts far, far in front of horses for now.

This brings me to my last concern: the future of this blog. My original plan was to keep it up until I released the Stonehell sequel and then quietly retire it. Now, with the sequel on hold for the foreseeable future, I’m at a loss at what to do. I have no interest in writing more about fantasy games like D&D here for now, but this blog draws a lot of traffic and has a robust following. Do I mothball the blog until I come back around to level-based fantasy games again or do I repurpose it to reflect my new interests? And if I do that, what happens to Secret Antiquities? Frankly, I don’t know.

That’s my future, folks. One which may or may not be of interest to you, but I thought you deserved a heads up as to where I’m headed. Things have been very, very quiet here as of late and this is the reason why. I hope this glimpse at where I’m going and my future plans sparks some interest and you hang around here or follow me where I’m going, but I understand if you’re more comfortable remaining where I’ve been. It’s all good either way.

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.

That Word You Can Only Say In German

It's been a quiet week here, I know. Things have been very busy on my side of the screen, but they've been a productive sort of busy so I don't mind. I finished another project and managed to chew a very large chunk out of another. I suspect that that second project will see the light of day very, very soon, so keep an eye on this blog for further details.

This Sunday is the 25th session of Watchfires & Thrones, something I'm extremely happy about. When we started the campaign back in March, my intent was to just play and let the details take care of themselves. There's no metaplot marching things along and I'll keep guiding the players through my world for as long as they keep showing up. I've got a little something special planned for this coming game and it should be fun.

The real surprise of the week is how much fun I've been having writing material for Secret Antiquities. While I'm still flailing about somewhat trying to determine where I'm going with that project, the lack of any firm guidelines has produced some cool ideas and I'm looking forward to figuring out how it all gets stitched together.

With that in mind, I was turning over a concept this evening and I lack the necessary linguistics to treat it properly. I dare say the majority of people reading this are familiar with the "doppelgänger" in game terms if not in its origins. Five seconds of research tells me that doppelgänger means "double walker" in the original German. Now my question for those who speak German is what would you call the doppelgänger of a place, location, or country? A locale that looks exactly the same as the one you call home, but isn't. I hope that makes a vague sort of sense. I'm poking at an idea and, should the German term for this concept work just as well as doppelgänger does, I might go that route. Suggestions are most appreciated.

Engaging the Weird Gear

I’ve been very neglectful of my tertiary web project, Secret Antiquities, as of late. I’ve been more concerned with getting projects finished, running Watchfires & Thrones, and playing in the radiation for next year’s Gamma World campaign. It is October, however, a month that has historically been one of great creativity for me and an all-around enjoyable time of year.

To celebrate October and to train myself to be more attentive to my weird history project, I’ve challenged myself to make thirty-one posts over on Secret Antiquities between now and Halloween. I’m trying to formulate some parameters for my planed GORE project in 2011 and I need to flail about wildly for a bit to find where my creative boundaries lie. Therefore, what will be appearing over on that blog is a potpourri of strange ideas, intellectual artifacts, and dream relics come to light. I can’t promise everyone’s going to be a Maserati of creativity, but hopefully the signal-to-noise ration won’t suck too badly.

Stop on by if this sort of thing sounds like your cup of ichor.

A Secret is Revealed

The last month was a difficult one for this blog, at least on my end of things. Despite my best intentions, my inability to say “no” to any writing project that comes my way has resulted in a backlog of work that needs to be completed. I find myself spending more time than I’d like to hacking away at the intellectual underbrush in search of new and interesting artifacts of creativity for those projects. When I’m done doing that, doing more of the same for this blog—a theoretical place of mental escape and recreation—is hard to do. Especially since I’m essentially revisiting the same topics which I just got done wrestling with. It was starting to become such a chore that I seriously began toying with the notion of going on an extended and perhaps permanent hiatus.

However, this little piece of electronic fish wrap is responsible for me being offered some incredible opportunities and it’s given me a place to exchange ideas and intellectuals jabs with people I might not have otherwise met. To end such an endeavor simply because I was getting a little ragged around the edges seemed to be a drastic step. So rather than pull the plug, I cast about for new paths of escape and considered remedies for this affliction. Ultimately, some seemingly unconnected events provided me with a solution.

Back in March, I got to play Call of Cthulhu again, and that session turned out to be a godsend for me mentally. I got a temporary reprieve from the dungeon and its assorted denizens to play in the realm of historical horror for an all-too short time. That brief session reminded me of how much I enjoy that genre of both literature and gaming. I have an appreciation for the macabre and my love for real world history—especially that period between the post Civil War period and the end of World War I –combined with my career as an archivist makes historical horror a subject that I’d like to explore again. It’s been too long since I dipped my toes into that murky pool.

Not too long after this, I began volunteering my time at the local historical society. I’ve been out of touch with historical documents for a while and wanted to keep my hands (literally) in the game. Summer is always a busy period for small historical preservation groups and my community’s society is undertaking some large projects that could use an experienced archivist to help out on. It’s a win-win for both of us, and working in such a setting is conducive to both my sanity and to nurturing the historical horror seed which had been planted.

As the particular seed started to germinate in my head, we experienced storms that brought a near-Biblical deluge here on Long Island. As the water rose, I went to check in on a storage lock-up that I have simply to ensure that my belongings weren’t in danger of being swept out to sea. It’s a good thing that I did, for the fire wall that my unit abutted was beginning to seep, which resulted in me having to evacuate my possessions to a drier and more secure unit deeper in the bowels of the storage facility. Since I had to reorganize all the sundry boxes and cartons anyway, I took the time to reexamine some of their contents and to retrieve anything that I didn’t want to risk losing again. This included numerous writings of mine, many of which go back to my college years and before. Amongst them, I discovered my notes for a place I haven’t given much thought about in many years.

Once upon a time, I helped create a “spooky little town” setting for a live action Halloween game. Although the game was a one shot, the town itself lived on in other projects, including two movie scripts and a television series treatment. A large quantity of notes, background, research, and even photographs were assembled over the years in regards to that town—more than I ever remembered generating.

With the historical history bug already in place, the rediscovery of these notes seemed particularly synchronistic. Here was a new book just waiting to be written. It would give me a break from both the dungeon and the rule set which I’ve been eating and breathing for the last two years and allow me to walk down avenues previously unexplored. So, after getting the go ahead from my former writing partner, I decided that 2011 will see me writing a game supplement for use in a historical horror role-playing game.

I’ve slowly started laying the ground work for this project, but the most concrete result has been that I’ve created a second blog—one which I’ve up until now remained quiet about. This other blog is somewhat different than the Society. Here, I’m often aware of my readership and that sometime affects what I post. This secondary blog is fully a venue for my own enjoyment. That freedom has allowed me to compose posts that would not otherwise fit in amongst my usual role-playing game related writings here on the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope. It’s become a pressure-release value and escape hatch for me. To offer an odd metaphor, if the Society is my Hollywood acting career, this other blog is my rock band or restaurant—that thing one does not to make money or advance a career, but just to have fun. And it’s precisely what I’ve needed.

Since I’ve started writing non-D&D related stuff (but still role-playing game related) content on the other blog, I’ve started to feel better about the Society again. You may have noticed that my posting here is on an upswing and that trend can be attributed to my other just-for-fun blog where I get to think about historical horror before I start on the new book next year.

I doubt that what I write there will be to the tastes of the Society’s entire readership, but I thought I’d invite you to stop by and check it out for yourself. I have no set schedule of postings and I haven’t even taken steps to keep tabs on the blog’s traffic. It’s merely a mental playground/open notebook for me to use as I research and prepare to write this future game supplement. I plan on having some fun along the way with it. Maybe you can join in too.

Pack your things, hope into your Packard, and head of down the turnpike for October Country. You’ve got some Secret Antiquities to examine.