Books and Stuff (NS, No 1)

Last night I was taking on the phone to my Kindest Critic and the subject of blogging came up.  She reminded me that back in the day (when I used to blog more frequently) I used to have a regular round-up of what I'd been reading.  These used to be quite popular posts.  And looking back at some of them this morning made interesting reading for me.

What with the lockdown, insomnia and what-have-you, I've been a) reading more, and b) thinking about reviving the blog a little.  I'm not going to do the weekly 'Books and Stuff' posts that were a feature of the early years of the blog, but I may start posting a little more often and record my thoughts on my reading.

So Far in May 2020...

Goodreads.com tells me that I've completed 25 books so far this year.  These are the ones I read in May.

Michael Bond, More About Paddington

How can you not like the little chap?  This is the second book in the Paddington series, and he's already very much at home in the Brown household.

There's not really much to be said about this.  The stories are lovely.  1959 attitudes to the sale and  handling of fireworks are something of an eye-opener to some-one who was brought up on 1970's public information films though! 

I can't help hearing Sir Michael Hordern's voice when I read the stories (which always makes it a little odd when I watch The Spy Who Came in From the Cold or Where Eagles Dare - oddly enough it never bothers me when I listen to his Gandalf).

Joan Druett, In The Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

This is a book by my old friend, New Zealand author Joan Druett.  Here she looks at the events around the 1841-42 Pacific cruise of the whaler Sharon of Fairhaven, MA, which saw Polyneasian crewmen mutiny and murder the captain.  This was of course a great scandal at the time but the causes were covered-up.  Joan examines the financial presures on the captain and his brutality and racism which lead to the mutiny (the turning of a blind eye to such things telling us a lot about the American merchant fleet of the time).

A really excellent read, well-worth looking into even if you're not particularly interested in maritime history.

Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

The Pulizer Prize-winning novel which tells a story of two Jewish cousins who battle Nazis by creating a comicbook hero.  A great depiction of New York in the early war years that manages to tell us a lot about the Golden Age of comics and their creators.  

My description doesn't do it justice.  It's a great read: I literally sat up all night reading this one!

Michael Bond, Paddington Helps Out

What can I say?  After mutiny, murder, mayhem and Nazis I needed another helping of the kindest bear you'll ever meet.

Robert W Chambers, The King in Yellow

The 1895 collection of short stories that had a huge influence on the Lovecraft Mythos.

The stand-out of the collection is the first story, 'The Repairer of Reputations', a story of madness and a truly unreliable narrator.  The others are a mixed bunch - perhaps the next best is "The Street of the First Shell", a tale of American artists living through the 1870 Seige of Paris.  The stories about Paris perhaps get a bum deal from those who go to the book expecting weird literature (only the first four of the ten stories - with the 'King in Yellow' and 'Yellow Sign' motifs - fall into that category).

Boria Sax, Crow

A study of the cultural impact of corvids.  An interesting little book, even if it did sometime make me a little cross with its generalisations and assumptions.

J D Davies, Gentlemen Captain

First book in the Matthew Quinton series of novels about an officer in the Restoration Navy and the (not insignificant) conflicts therein.  This one is set in 1662 and is concerned with treason in Scottish waters.

It sounds pretentious to say that I was aware of Davies' non-fiction and academic works on the period, but I hadn't tried the fiction.  Well, now I have and I enjoyed it a lot.  I've already ordered a cheap copy of the second book in the series.

Alan Abbey, Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls: Naval Wargame Rules for the Age of Sail

All this maritime reading prompted me to dig out and re-read BBIB.  The immediate results can be read here, more will no doubt follow.

Currently Reading

Peter Le Fevre and Richard Harding (edd), Precursers of Nelson: British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century

Published in 1999 - right in the middle of what publishers of naval history were touting as 'Nelson Decade', ie between the bicentenaries of the Battles of the Nile and Trafalgar - this is a study of British naval leadership in the Long C18th (so from Torrington to Keith).  With over a dozen authors, there's a mix of stuff here.  Solid work though.  Neither a light nor quick read.

Arthur Conan Doyle, Tales of Unease

As the editor says in his introduction (the editions I read of both this book and the King in Yellow were by Wordsworth with introductions by David Stuart Davies), Doyle's work can be overlooked both because of the overwhelming presence of Sherlock Holmes and because of the sheer quantily and variety of stuff he wrote.  His longer works can be a bit thin, but he is the master of the short story though.  

If he'd only written these ghost stories they'd be worth remembering.  They're not as good as MR James, but they compare well with the RW Chambers.

Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls

It's been an age since I've done any wargaming, so I was pleased when I finally got my act in order to get some solo naval wargaming done (a very long-term goal of mine!).

I pulled out Blood, Bilge and Iron Balls, which is an age of sail (really Napoleonic) set of rules.  Way back in 2014 I took part in a play-by-post game, which I enjoyed (there's some eye-candy in the blog archives if you want to look at it - Clint, the host had some rather nice models he set up for us).

Wanting to do a fleet action, but wanting to keep it manageble, I played using the order of battle for the Battle of San Domingo.  In a reversal of Real Life, this turned out to be a French victory.  My inexperience in ship handling meant that Admiral Louis' division wasn't engaged until very near the end of the four hours that I devoted to the battle, which significantly tipped the balance in favour of the French.  But there are enough variables to give some replayability, so I may set up the scenario again and see how it goes.

BBIB plays well as a solo game.  I think it handles the randomising of turns nicely, as it does damage (which can have quite an effect on the game).  I think that before I play again, I will sit down and write my own crib-sheet: the quick-reference sheet in the book is OK, but it didn't stop me from doing quite a bit of back-and-forth in the book.  I also need to get my head around the rules for boarding.  And next time I'll play on a table rather than the floor - it didn't require as much space as I expected, and by the end of four hours, my back and knees were complaining!

Dark Sun #2: The One Where We Fought Elves, With a Dragon as Background

Dark Sun May 2020 (online session)

Third session of an on-going campaign.  Seph joined. 

Dave	Game Master
Edwin	Garrok	Wandering Mul Druid (Lv.1)
Tom	Frayne	Human Templar (Lv.1)	Follower: Rajal.
Spencer	Geo	Half-Giant Ranger (Lv.1)
Ian	Fribb	Halfling Psionicist slave (Lv.2)
Aengel	Gre’kkt	Thri-Kreen Druid Trader (Lv.2)	Follower:  Kreekit, her nephew.
Seph	Unayra	Halfling Assasin (Lv.1)	Follower: Unnamed Elf slave.

The Story So Far...

Read the last instalment here.

The reward better be worth it...

Our party has been hired by Sidar Kurlak, head of one of the merchant houses of Urik, to recover his daughter Aspis, who had apparently been kidnapped by a group of escaping slaves.  These elves were tracked across the Alluvian Tablelands, where we eventually found that they had been captured by the dwarves of Kled.  After some horse-trading, the daughter and elves were handed over to our group.

It then turned out that this was not as simple a rescue operation as it had appeared.  Aspis demanded that she and the elves be released and that we go to an elven stronghold where she would be able to garner support for an uprising that would free all the slaves in Urik.

We decided to have no truck with this, paralysed her and bundled her onto the back of our beast of burden.

The Return to Urik

The return leg is the south and east
(Ian's map)

We started encamped outside Kled.  Fearing that elves may attempt to rescue Aspis, we had decided to rest before what might be a forced march back to Urik.  We also decided that it would be safer (and hopefully quicker) not to return the way we had come, but to head eastward until we hit the road running north to Urik. 

While still at the camp, the party was rejoined by Frayne, the Urik Templar, who had remained behind healing-up following the encounter with giant hornets, and by Uanyra a Halfling, who he had met on the way, along with her slave.

 A long night-time trek through the sandy wastes proved largely uneventful.  However, even by the light of the twin moons it was clear almost at once that we were being stalked by some large, flying creature.  As daylight broke we made camp and the beast – it turned out to be a silk-wyrm - made its attack.  It first struck the water-carrying kank, giving the camp the chance to awaken.  Gre’kkt’s psionic ability to banish the wyrm gave us the chance to take up positions to despatch it as soon as it reappeared.  Various body-parts were harvested and Gre’kkt recovered a clutch of six eggs.

Two hours after breaking camp, we finally found the Urik road and were from then able to make better time, only pausing to exchange news with a trading caravan heading south.  Before the day was over, we were in sight of Urik.

A Disappointing Reception

Entering the cultivated areas around Urik was a relief.  We took time to pause and refresh ourselves following our long journey through the sandy wastes.   However, as soon as the city came into sight we encountered a mass of fleeing citizens and saw that it was under attack from a huge dragon. 

Both Fribb and Frayne were subject to some form of psionic backwash, each having visions relating to the dragon – Fribb seeing it being surrounded by the spirits of the dead, and Frayne seeing himself plunging a metal spear through its hide.  Our destination was on the far side of the city from the dragon’s attack, so we decided to avoid it and press on in order to relieve ourselves of our burden and collect our reward. 

Our employer

Fribb (who is one of Sirdar Kurlak’s household slaves) lead us straight to his mansion and an immediate audience.  However, we saw that Kurlak wasn’t immune to the quite reasonable air of panic in the city: an evacuation of the mansion was underway.  Kurlak was delighted to see his daughter again, but in no mood to deal with us.  He promised that we would receive our reward on his return to the city, but his immediate concern was to get out of Urik as soon as possible.  He conceded that if the party wished to join him, his household could do with the extra bodyguards on the route up-country to his summer lodgings.  This earned a rebuke from Frayne, who saw the abandonment of Urik as an act of disloyalty to the Sorcerer-King.  Kurlak wasn’t inclined to argue, and the rest of the party recognised that joining his caravan was their best chance of getting paid.  Rajal, Frayne’s retainer made the decision that his master (who was fairly rattled on seeing the dragon attacking his city) wasn’t going to do what was good for him, and knocked him out.

It soon proved that Kurlak was indeed in need of extra bodyguards.  As we pressed through the throng in the marketplace, we were surrounded by a group of eight elves.  The caravan guards were of no assistance whatsoever during the skirmish, during which Aspis used her arcane powers against us.  With Fribb and Geo put to Sleep, things were touch-and-go, and Kurlak was seriously injured (as which point Aspis seemed to realise that assisting the elves had been a step too far).  Gre’kkt and Garrok rallied around the fallen merchant (and his wallet), and Unayra was able to make some telling hits from her hiding-place.  Frayne resumed consciousness and was able to use his authority as a Templer of the Sorcerer-King to get assistance from on-lookers.  However, his loyal and useful retainer Rajal was killed, as was Gre'kkt's nephew and apprentice, Kreekit.

The elves defeated and the dragon having moved on, the caravan returned to Kurlak’s mansion (Aspis in a much subdued frame of mind).  Kurlak was too seriously injured to address the party’s questions, but promised answers (and hopefully payment) soon...

Gaming in April 2020

One of the unforseen results of the house move was going without broadband for almost a fortnight.  This put a cramp into my participation with the various on-line campaigns that I'd been taking part in and other, multiplying oportunities for on-line play.

First a look at the on-going games without me...

The Black Hack 2: Melcher's Vale

Bolton on sabatical...

Just as Bolton the Mage had made contact with the Eunuchs' Guild of Mudharbour he had to drop out of the game.

In fact he's been doing some in-depth research into various arcane mysteries at Bo Lee Wang's monkey cabaret and over-indulging on dolphin burgers.









Call of Cthulhu: Forget-Me-Not

Episode 3: The Spider Clinic, which we played on 7 Mar has now hit the airwaves.*  Enjoy!

Two sessions went ahead without me (fortunately, Charlie, my character, has tended to fade into the background all along).  Andy has given me access to the unedited recordings of these sessions.

Our TV crew ('The Supernatural Files') rescued their co-presenter from the hospital where she'd summoned an Elder God, were reunited with their van and  finally made their way back to the abandoned farmhouse where we assume all this began.  And then things started getting weird.  In Andy's immortal words (ones you do not want to hear a CoC Keeper say), "well, that escalated quickly!"

We estimate that there's probably only one session left.

Andy is strict in keeping his sessions to a two-hour max.  These are then edited down to a 70-90 minute episode on the podcast (which is why you don't hear any dice-rolling or consulation of madness tables).

*In fact, Andy has been very busy.  His podcast is running six or seven different actual play campaigns at the moment with various Call of Cthulhu, Traveller and Tales from the Loop going on.

Dark Sun/Dying Star

Stolen from Modiphius - their Barsoom

24 Apr

This is GM'd by Dave Aldrige, who also runs The Black Hack sessions.  Although he's still running TBH, he wanted something with more of a campaign feel.

Dave has written a hack under the OGL of Swords and Wizardry Continual Light with an implied setting of DnD's Dark Sun (with the serial numbers filed-off).  There's a draft for play-test here if you're interested.  Our campaign is very much Dark Sun.

I missed the first session, but I have written up the second here.

I've never played in the Dark Sun setting, so can't say how true Dave is being to it, but suffice to say that I had a blast in this post-apocalyptic fantasy world with a hint of Barsoom.  As a friend of the blog said commenting on Dave's description on his podcast, this is definitely 'planet of the bastards'.

We play using a combo of a Zoom meeting and Dave's discord channel.  This latter allowed for the in-game sharing of artwork - which I always find useful - and maps.  There's also some out-of-game roleplay there, with one of our players writing up the session in the form of her character's (a Thri-keen trader-druid) journal.  This I find really helpful in giving some colour.  Actual roleplay is one of my weaknesses (as you know, my write-ups tend to be 'this happened, we did this, then that happened...') and being able to read someone elses RP interpretation helps me focus my own approach.

One-Off

28 Apr

Jason Connerley offered a one-off, settling on a 'spooky theme' (the alternative was 'cowboys in space').

It turned out to be an odd one!  Four of us played ourselves, returning from a RPG Con on a dark and stormy night.  Our hire-car broke down by a washed-out bridge.  Fortunately, there was a large house nearby on a hill...

Unsurprisingly, there was a strange butler and a mad scientist.

Jason discusses it here.

Solo Gaming: 4AD

Some may remember that I ran a solo dungeon-crawl last year.  This was done using Old School Essentials and a rather complicated system I'd botched together from a number of sources.  As a result it was a little unwieldy and although I enjoyed it, it collapsed under its own weight.  I therefore looked out for a system that can be run out-of-the box for a quick session, and invested in Four Against Darkness.

4AD is pretty basic, but I thought I'd give it a go.  It's ideal for those times you just want to sit down and roll dice for 45mins or an hour with no prep.  There's a good review here.

Time will tell whether there is much scope for repeat play in the system.  If that proves a problem, there are supplements and modules available for the cost of a couple of pints.  It may even prove an interesting exercise to expand the d6 Encounter and Treasure Tables to d66 ones.  I may write up sessions using the Heybrook setting I created for the previous campaign - it will prove the practice I need in creating a narrative out of dice rolls and hack-and-slash.

Seven Books

Over on Facebook I decided to post seven book covers over seven days.  No explanations, but they've all influenced me.

And I didn't tag anyone to do the same (curses on all chain letters!).

Dark Sun: The One Where Garrok Went Bonkers at the Oasis and We Got the Girl

Dark Sun.  Session held 24 Apr 2020 (online).  I'll talk more about the system/campaign in my monthly round-up post.

Second session of an on-going campaign.  Edwin joined.  Spencer’s character having been killed, he introduced a new one.  Some players from the previous session were unable to attend.

Dave	Game Master
Edwin	Garrok	Wandering Mul Druid (Lv.1)
Spencer	Geo	Half-Giant Ranger (Lv.1)	Follower:  Hardy.  Dwarf.
Ian	Frib	Halfling slave Psionicist (Lv.1)
Aengel	Gre’kkt	Thri-Kreen Druid Trader (Lv.1)	Follower.  Kreekit, her nephew.

  

Ian's map (messed about with)

 Day 3 (Night)

The party was camping at the site of the fight with the giant hornets.

Two hours into the night, they were joined by travellers Garrok and Geo, introductions were made and the newcomers agreed to join the quest.  Some members of the party remained at the camp, recuperating.

Tracks of the renegades were found, leading to the SW, these were followed (leading into Hex 1, sandy wastes).  As we did so, we observed a cloud of dust – a large group of humanoids travelling as speed.  Knowing that this was likely to be a party of elves, and fearing that they might be hostile, we decided to avoid them and diverted to the W (moving into Hex 2, stony barrens).  The elves passed without incident.

We now observed a number of strange structures, which we assumed to be the nests of giant hornets.  Some debate was has as to whether to destroy them or to open one to discover what was inside.  However, we decided that to tamper with one risked awakening all the hornets nearby, and no-one had the appetite for that.  We resumed our pursuit of the escaped slaves.

Day 4 (Day)

(Hex 3, sandy wastes, oasis).  We discovered that the tracks of our quarry had been obliterated by the passing band of elves.  More importantly, we found an oasis, surrounded by mud and fringed on one side by trees.  It was decided that we should rest here during the heat of the day.  Two mekilots were watering at the oasis, so we took up position away from them.

Geo found the trail leading out to the SW.

While the rest of the party were resting, Frip observed a robed Thri-keen come out of the trees and perform some ritual at the water’s edge.  He reported this to Gre’kkt and the rest of the party.  An additional mekilot had turned up.

Day 4 (Night)

As the party were rousing, four mud-covered humanoid figures rose from the mud.  Too late, these were recognised as banshees (undead dwarves, cursed to roam the earth because they had died before completing their focus).  They uttered piercing screams.

Garrok, Hardy and Kreekit entered into a frenzy and rushed into an attack on the banshees, to no effect.  Two of the mekilots fled, but the third also suffered a bout of madness.  Fortunately, the Thri-keen emerged and used his powers to banish the banshees.  Garrok was able to shake off the effect of the cry, but Hardy and Kreekit weren’t.  Frip levitated out of the way and those in their senses retreated to the shelter of the trees as the mekilot charged.

Kreekit made an ineffectual attack on Gre’kkt.  Hardy took his flint spear and made a foolhardy charge on the mekilot.  Although the ex-gladiator managed to find a vulnerable spot and drove his spear into the creature’s skull, it was an uneven contest and he was trampled and killed.  The beast stampeded off.

As his companions retrieved what was left of Hardy’s body, Gre’kkt exchanged formalities and gifts with the druid.  He was able to tell her that the elves we were tracking had been captured by dwarves from the nearby settlement of Kled and gave her directions to get there.  Geo gave an eulogy for his companion.

Gre’kkt and Garrok had both previously been to Kled.  They knew that the dwarves there were employed in excavating the ruins of their lost city of Kemalock and were in constant conflict with a settlement of elves to the north (in part, over rights to this oasis).

Travel (through Hex 4 and Hex 5, both sandy wastes).  We came across a large patch of cacti resembling writhing brains.  Those who knew the wastes advised that these contain worms which, when the plant is cut, come out and attack, entangling their targets.  We moved on.

Entering the rocky badlands (Hex 6), we came to Kled.  On Gre’kkt’s advice, we waited until daybreak before entering the settlement, under the watchful eye of town guards all along.

Our first stop was the market, where Gre’kkt enquired of trader contacts (there were none present) and bought some Esper Weed (which when chewed would grant psionic effects) and a broken short sword (made of some form of metal!).

We then presented ourselves to the headman, Barrunas.  A venerable dwarf, he had founded the settlement over 150 years ago.  Although known to Garrok, he was reserved until he heard that we were intending to trade for his captives.  He drove a hard bargain: his preferred option being a rich reward, he also offered us the option of instead entering the mine and defeating a Sand Golem (and anything else that we might encounter).  After some discussion, we offered him Garrok’s monkey paw (which had the power to curse one’s enemies) and a hefty payment from Gre’kkt’s reserves.  Fripp gave Garrok his animating oil to replace the paw.

Barrunas led us to the captives, warning us that the woman was ‘trouble’.  Frip confirmed that this was indeed our quarry, Aspis, allegedly abducted by renegade elves.

This is where the story began to unravel.  Aspis ordered that her slaves be freed and that we immediately proceed to the elvin stronghold, where she would begin negotiations for the freeing of all her father’s slaves and the other elves held captive in Urik.  This caused some consternation.  Frip hastened to obey, but Gre’kkt pointed out that our employer was her father, who had contracted for the return of his daughter, and certainly not for a slave rebellion. 

Aspis’ haughty attitude decided the matter.  Garrok and Geo bundled her in a cloak, while Gre’kkt administered a paralysing bite.  She was bound and gagged.  While this was happening, the elves affected an escape.  One was killed, but the others fled.  Barrunas demanded that the party leave the settlement. 

The party was now faced with the prospect of the three-day journey back to Urik with a prisoner who may have arcane or psionic powers, and also the chance of being intercepted by an elvin warband.  Nevertheless, it was decided that we needed to camp and rest-up, so in order to be fresh if we did encounter trouble, and to give absent members of the party a chance to rejoin us.