Reading in Dec 2022

Having been bogged down recently in some turgid anthologies, I decided to aim for lighter fare and had a bit of a December splurge...

Isaac Asimov, Earth is Room Enough

A collection of Asimov's short stories, all based on earth.  It being Asimov, there is a proportion of silliness and a couple of groaners, but on the whole good stuff.

Cecily Gayford (ed), Murder on a Winter's Night: Ten Classic Crime Stories for Christmas

The sub-title says it all, really.

Cecily Gayford (ed), A Very Murderous Christmas: Ten Classic Crime Stories for the Festive Season

More of the same...

Both of these books took me back 30 years to a period in which my future wife was introducing me to the glories of green Penguins.  Some good memories there.

I really must read some Margery Allingham and Dorothy L Sayers soon.

Natalie Haynes,  A Thousand Ships

Haynes is well-known as a stand-up comic and classicist - I strongly recommend that you look online and find some of her work (in the UK, you should be able to listen here).

But there aren't many laughs in this marvellous re-telling of the women (and nymphs and goddesses) entangled in the Trojan War.  Epic tradegy, but highly recommended.

Brian Sibley, The Land of Narnia

A brief look at how the Chronicles of Narnia came to be written.  Aimed at younger readers and a large part is taken up with a summary of the books, but Sibley knows his stuff, of course (I imagine he could have done this in his sleep).

C S Lewis, The Magician's Nephew

It makes me feel very old to say that it's over 45 years since I first read this.  There are images in this book that still colour my approach to fantasy - nevertheless, one can still find new sides to old favorites.

C S Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Being a contrary child, I never read this along with the rest of the Chronicles of Narnia.  I'm pretty sure that this is the first time I've read it at all!

Jonathan Tucker, The Troublesome Priest: Harold Davidson, Rector of Stiffkey

Biography of the Rector of Stiffkey - famously defrocked for immoral relations with prostitutes he was 'rescuing' and pestering shopgirls - who later became a sideshow performer and was killed by a circus lion in Skegness.

Tucker's verdict that Davidson was a fool, but not immoral, might have been alright in 1932 or 2004 (when he was writing), but makes unconvincing reading in 2020.  The man was obviously both a fool and a sex-pest.

CS Lewis, The Horse and His Boy

Lewis takes beyond the borders of Narnia into his Arabian analogue for this tale of runaway orphans, princesses and horses.

CS Lewis, Prince Caspian

The Pesvenie children make their second visit to Narnia, and help legitimise a dynasty.

Currently Reading

Peter Moore, Endeavour: The Ship and the Attitude that Changed the World

A splendid biography of Capt Cook's ship.  

For a little while I lived in a house of an age and location to have overlooked the yard in which Endeavour was being built, so the early chapters were of particular interest to me.

CS Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

The book that introduced me to Narnia over 45 years ago.  Reading it now, it makes me long for those island-hoping holidays we had in the Western Isles when I was a boy.

Books & Stuff (NS, No 31) - Reading in Aug 2022

 

Gene Kranz, Failure is Not an Option

Kranz's autobiographical account as his time as flight director at NASA Mission Control Center during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes.

A very good and readable narative.

Matt Pritchett, The Best of Matt 2020

Perhaps it's cheating to include this on the list, but I don't care.  I'm a big fan of Matt, and here he tackles 2020 - a year that needed and damn big injection of humour.

Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches

I picked this up on a whim, quite prepared to hate it after the first chapter, but was swept along.  Witch falls in love with vampire while researching at the Bodleian (I know, I know...).

First book in the All Souls trilogy.

RPG-a-Day 2021: 2 - 'Map'

 

Today's word is an easy one for me as it allows me to rehash one of my favourite RPG stories.  When my FLGS group celebrated the first anniversary of our delve in Barrowmaze I decided to have a hard-copy made of the progress we'd made.

End of Day 1

...and a year later

I was annoyed when Snappy-Snaps got in touch to tell me that it wouldn't be ready at the time they'd promised, and thus I'd have to pick it up on the way to the session.  When I got to the printers, it turned out that the lad who'd took my order had confused centemetres and inches.  That ruler lying on the map is a foot long...

Last week, someone posted on the Old School Essentials FaceBook group about all this.  "Why do you grumpy old sods hide things from your players?" he said*.  "I give my players the whole map and let 'em at it!".  Well good for him, and good for his players,  That's the game they want to play.  Exploration (of the 'dungeon') isn't their priority.  But I found it a bit odd.  I'm old-school in my approach.  I like mapping and record-keeping.  Why is that?

*Not really, but words to that effect.

Well there are those who will insist* that Dungeons & Dragons is primarily an exploration game (and by that they don't mean exploring one's character or motivations!).  So, when played in that Old-School** way, mapping is an essential part of resource-management.  

*Ad nausium sometimes.

**Note I use the initial capitals here that I avoided in the previous paragraph.

For me, it's because maps and imagination are closely linked.  I've posted before about R L Stevenson's 'Land of Counterpane'.  Technically the poem's not about maps but the link is there; and I'm not the only one who has lain in bed looking at cracks in the ceiling and instead seen rivers and coasts.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

My introduction to fantasy was Narnia.  Not The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, but The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  I picked up a copy of that in the school library because I liked the picture of the ship, but it also had a map!  Even better was the one in Treasure Island which had all sorts of strange symbols on it.  I've always loved coasts and islands.*  The first book I bought with my own money was Enid Blyton's The Island of Adventure**.  For years afterwards I'd doodle island maps.

*Inevitably our holiday desitnations when I was a kid.

**In a secondhand bookshop opposite Exeter Catherdral while on one of those holidays.  I must have been about 8.

Treasure Island

My next literary map was of Middle Earth, and I'm sure I don't need to write much about that one.*

*Partly because once one starts, where do you stop?

Of course, it all got rather out of hand in the fantasy genre.  All the sub-Tolkein writers determined that books had to come in threes*, have over 800 pages* and must start with a map.  Joe Abercombie** famously reacted against that and resisted having maps in his books (but they're just too damn useful!).

*At least!

**Who I rate very highly.  Follow the link and read his eloquent and amusing dismissal of crap maps.

So why do I like maps and record-keeping in my games?  I'd like to say that it's because of all this.  But really, it's because I'm anal.  There is a joy in making the unknown known.  I know that capturing the butterfly and pinning it to the page is unnecessary, but it's a question of control.  I must be a micro-managing control-freak.*

*No accident that I became an archivist then (and though I was bad at it, that was solely due to vice and laziness).

EDIT

After posting this, I was reminded of my first book-with-a-map.  How could I forget the Hundred Acre Wood!  My Mother used to read Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner to me in bed.

#RPGaDAY

Books & Stuff (NS, No 17) - Reading in June 2021

Again, insomnia and being a part-time worker combine to lead to a healthy shelf-full of reading this month.

Patrick O'Brian, The Reverse of the Medal

Several thread come together in this (the eleventh) installment of the Aubrey-Maturin series.  The influencial (and traitorous) men with a grudge against Aubrey finally bring their campaign against him to a head.  He is duped into being the pasty for a stock market buble, which leads to his trial and dismissal from the Navy (as in much of the series, O'Brian is borrowing from history here, leaning on the trial of Lord Cochrane).

Raymond E Feist, Magician

As a palette-cleanser from all this naval derring-do, I've embarked upon another shelf-groaning series, perhaps unwisely.

I've never read any Feist before, and this series (the Riftwars) was recommended as a different take from Vancian magic (I've never read any Vance either, but that's for another time...)

Good competent stuff.  Even reading this first novel, I can see that George R R Martin and Joe Abercrombie have both been influenced by it.  I still prefer Abercrombie, but that's just me.

 Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque

Aubrey, ejected from the Service that has been his life, is in a low place.  Luckily, Maturin has come into a fortune and is this able to buy HMS Surprise -  also retired from service - and set her up as a privateer.  Plans are put on foot to find a Spectacular Action that will justify Aubrey's re-instatement.

Maturin has to deal with his complicated private affairs.

Ted Nield, Underlands: A Journey Through Britain's Lost Landscape

A geologist muses on the hundreds of thousands of holes - clay pits, gravel pits, quarries and mines - that used to scatter the landscape providing local (often very local) building materials and resources.   

He uses these holes to tell two stories.  On a human scale, he tells us of the generations of his family which lived and worked on the South Wales coalfield.  On a geological scale, he walks us through what science learnt from them and tells that their filling-in or amenitisation will hinder geological education.

Finally, he ponders what it means that we now find it more economical (because of low wages, poor safety standards and under-priced petroleum) to import these earth resources from Asia, and what impact that will have on our planet.  He makes a telling parallel between the unthinking siting of spoil-tips above the village of Aberfan and our persistant burning of fossilised carbon despite the lessons of geological history about its perils.

Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute

Aubrey and Maturin's mission to ferment revolution in South America is blown, so they are given another reason to be in the Pacific - to escort an envoy to negotiate a treaty with a Malay Sultan who's also being courted by the French.  On the bright side, that means that Aubrey is re-instated to the Navy List and they get to give a couple of old enimies thier comeuppance.

Maturin meets an orangutan.

Jonathan Morris, Festival of Death

This is apparently one of the best Doctor Who novels - when eleven books were selected to be reissued as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, this was the one chosen to represent the Third Doctor.  Despite this, I'd characterise it as 'for fans only' - but then, perhaps that's the point...

Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation

Our crew manage to escape the island on which they were cast away at the end of the last book (not without incident, of course) and make their way to Java, where Governor Raffles treats them well.  They then go on to the Botany Bay Colony, which is a different story entirely - a squalidf, corrupt and brutal place.

Rats eat Maturin's personal supply of coca leaves and he meets a platypus. 

The Old Guard and the New, 1977

I couldn't help sharing this...

It's from May 1977 editorial of Donald Featherstone's Wargamer's Newsletter (which rather marvelously is online at http://fourcats.co.uk).

It actually ties in with some discussions I've been having recently which touched on the influence of wargaming on early RPGs.  I was pointing to the debt that Gygaz et al owed to Tony Bath.  It's interesting to read Featherstone pontificate* on the subject.

*I suspect that this is an 'Editorial Voice' and not necessarily reflective of his own view.

I particularly like the last sentance.  To paraphrase: 'this D&D stuff is rubbish, but at least it's brining youths to proper wargaming'.  It's a sentiment I hear today about 5e.

But there's also a rather sensible letter in the following issue  (which is every editor's hope in writing a provoking editorial). 

I was interested to see your, and Mr. Griffith's remarks on the direction in which wargames are going. I hope however that rather than looking back we can go forward to new and better developments, rather than indulge in a rather pointless debate about whether Fantasy games are "wargames" or not. 

All this is doing is defining wargaming, when we could be pursuing studies of strategy and tactics rather thant Just as we are all free to devise our own rules, based on personal interpretation of the facts, so I hope this hobby will never become ravaged by a debate as to whether a particular activity belongs to it or not. 

Rather than criticise Fantasy and/or Boardgames, which after all must entertain their respective adherents, unless they are masoehits!, we should strive to improve "standard" wargaiming so as to lure these heretics baek to the true faith! 

Long may Wargamer's Newsletter continue. 

A. Harman of Walsall.

Actually, there's quite a lot of interesting stuff in the magazines even if you fall on the D&D side of the table.  The Minifigs' advert for pig-faced orcs alone... And it is very well put-together, given that it was the age of typewriters and rotorary duplications.  I see many zines today that can't match it's production qualities.

Fantasy Thursday #3

Wow! My last Fantasy Thursday post (and that was only the second) was back in March 2016!  Nethertheless, given that it's my main hobby focus at the moment, I've decided to revive the series. 

Gaming

The FLGS Group

As regular readers will know, our main campaign is the Barrowmaze using Old School Essentials. 

Sunday's session was a busy one: we had two and a half very well-paying delves (the half was a quick journey to pick up cached loot).  We had some classic encounters: a spectre, giant centipedes; an ochre jelly (which involved us setting fire to each other), giant crab spiders, a lich (arrghh!), and ghouls.  We play an Open Table, and were able to welcome a new player to the table (I think he may come back!).

And only three PC deaths!  Surprisingly my character survived.  Again, regular readers will know that I'm notorious for having my PCs killed at Level 1.  This character (a Cleric of Solis named Leofric) is my 15th for the campaign.  Much to everyone's amusement he jumped from Level 1 to Level 3 in an afternoon!

Next Sunday's session will be me DM'ing, running The Hole in the Oak.  The following session (22 Dec) will be back to Barrowmaze with our extra-long Christmas session in which we will be raising money for charity by having a jar which will allow us to re-roll on payment of a fine.  This is a week-long fundraising system across the store in aid of MIND.

The Home Group

The Home Group has had two sessions down The Hole in the Oak, which I touched on last week. 

They're far from being Murder Hobos, and by savvy use of the Charm Person spell have got involved in gnome politics and picked up a lot of useful intel about the dungeon.  I've no idea what they'll do next (but I hope they go on a mushroom hunt for a crone I've introduced them to!).

We play on a Thurday night, however tonight's session has been cancelled due to illness and stuff, so I'm dabbling in...

...Online Gaming

More about that later.

More Shiny!

On the whole I behaved myself during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday nonsense.  I bought a few things on DriveThruRPG.com.  But I also took advantage of the sale at Hasslefree Minis to pick up some extra figures.

Nothing exciting, a couple more female figures, a dwarf and an elf (he didn't come with a label - he's HFE007 - Ceril "Brooding Elf Lord").  I'm not keen on metal figures that require assembly, but that's down to my own inadequacy rather than anything else!

I think the pictures speak for themselves.  All nice sculpts as you'd expect from Hasslefree: Henn of Gar is by Tre Manor, the rest by Kev White.

Paint Table Saturday - 7 Dec 2019

I haven't done any painting since before the summer, but the prospect of hosting my own RPG sessions requires me to get some minis ready for the table.  The group often says nice things about the minis I put on the table, so I thought I'd let that be a prompt to get the brushes out (we all need some encouragement!).  In addition, we're having a bumper session at the end of December, so I thought it'd be nice to have some new options.

So what have I been working on?  Grouped here by manufacturer for ease of identification;

Shield Maiden and Lanterns from Bad Squiddo Games

Hirelings and Not-Bullwugs from Lucid Eye

Frostgrave Cultists

Gnomes from Krakon Games

Those photos are from last week as I did the prep.  I didn't get as far as I intended, but have made some progress...

Seconds after taking the second photo, I snapped the 10-foot pole the hireling is carrying.  Sharp-eyed readers may also spot that one of the gnomes has lost his axe-head.

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge X

Also, it's that time of the year again.  The AHPC starts towards on 21 December.

I won't be taking part this year: for the past few seasons I've felt like dead wood and that I've been clogging up the limited roster of participants.  I know no-one would begrudge me, but that does take some of the fun out of it for me.  If you are interested though, I would recomend it.  Its not a competition: it's a group of painters working in parallel, having fun and being supportive of each other.

You can follow the Challenge here.

Fruit of the Kickstarter: Old School Essentials

Regular readers may realise that my regular RPG group's system of choice is Old School Essentials (formerly B/X Essentials) by Necrotic Gnome.  OSE is a retro-clone and restatement of the 1981 Basic/Expert rules for D&D.  People who know better than I do have said that it's the best expression of B/X.

Our group were involved in the play-testing of various new bits of the rules-set (readers of my Butcher's Bill posts will appreciate I've had the chance to try out several of the Advanced Classes!) for an edition that went to Kickstarter back in April to great sucess: it funded withing two hours, and finally was over 1000% subscribed.  So this is more than just an unboxing review:  I'm fairly familiar with the contents, and am enthusiastic in my recommendation of them!

Well fulfilment is underway on schedule and my rewards arrived today.  In fact they would have arrived on Wednesday: instead I received the Red Card of Frustration.  The OSE group on Facebook has been full of tantalising photos from across the world while I've been twiddling my thumbs!

Up to now OSE has been published in module form: a series of softback books of 40-60 pages.   This is quite handy as it allows people to buy which bits they need, but not the others.  So for example, as we've been playing over the last year and a half, as a rule only the GM has have the booklets covering monster stats and allocation of treasures but there might have been three copies of the core rules and the character classes volumes at the table.  Another advantage is that the intention is to bring out additional modules covering additional genre rules or other specialisations (word on the street is that Post-Apoc is being planned).

In putting together the new issue, Gavin Norman has continued with this modular system (but now in hardback with new-and-better illustrations).  These are available in a Black Box version, with the five core volumes.

Having said all that, I chose to go for the Rules Tome option, in which these five core volumes are presented in one 296pp hardback volume.  As you'll see from the photos below, the volume has very high production values and great artwork.  From the cover options I chose the Peter Mullen varient, an image I love (and is expanded on the new GM's screen).

The front- and end-papers of all the volumes have quick reference table relevant to the contents.  The Rules Tome has a couple of ribbon markers, a nice touch.

Layout is a module of clarity and well thought-out artwork.  Where possible, Gavin has worked hard to have all the relevant info on a single double-spread - as can be seen with the decriptions of character classes.

And the art-work can speak for itself...  Over two-dozen artists are represented in the Rules Tome.

There were two modules in the Kickstarter aditional to the Core Set or Rules Tome:  Advance Fantasy Genre Rules and a list of Druid and Illusionist Spells.  The major part of the Advance Rules is that addition of another 15 character clases and the option of character races (because this is B/X of course, and the default is race-as-class).  Druid and Illusionist are two of the new classes, so they needed a spell list.   I've played from both these volumes in various drafts, and they work well.  

The small volumes have the same production values as the Tome (without the special colour spreads) and will work well on the table - we all know the problem of POD or other volumes that lose pages after very little use.

Finally, one of the stretch goals for the Kickstarter was the inclusing of an introductionary adventure: The Hole In the Oak.  This was described as "a classic (and quirky!) old-school adventure for 1st level characters, set in the Mythic Underworld that lies beyond the hole in an old oak tree. This odd realm will be mapped by the mycologically inclined Karl Stjernberg and illustrated by the phantasmagoric James West".

Unlike the other volumes in the Kickstarter, this is a softback (staple bound of 32 pages), but the same care has gone into the layout and choice of illustrations.

I'll be immersing myself in this module over the next week, as in an excess of enthusiasm I've offered to GM the module.  My first experience of GM-ing!  I'm going to do a dry run on some close friends and then break it out for the more discerning RPG group.

Necrotic Gnome's next project is a Kickstarter in 2020 for the production of a Campaign Book for the weird and wonderful Dolmonwood setting.  I've played in that setting, and I hope to be be able to sign up for that one too!