two fists, two guns and cold steel

Robert E. Howard (1934)
Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Today is Robert E. Howard's birthday.  Another member of the Weird Tales triumvirate (along with Clark Ashton Smith and H.P. Lovecraft) he is at least acknowledged as an inspiration for D&D in Appendix N of the Dungeon Master's Guide and arguably as influential to the fantasy genre as J.R.R. Tolkein.

Howard has inspired numerous RPGs, including the Conan RPG by TSR (using the four-coloured table found in the Marvel RPG), Conan: The RPG by Mongoose (using d20 rules), GURPS: Conan and Savage World of Solomon Kane (using the Savage Worlds system).

A lot of words have been spilled about 'Two-Gun Bob', his writing and his suicide.  While Conan, Kull the Conqueror, Bran Mak Morn and Solomon Kane are what most readers of this blog will remember him for, he was also famous for Westerns, boxing stories and 'spicy' tales.  As part of Lovecraft's circle of writing correspondents, he also contributed to the Cthulhu Mythos, creating the Unaussprechlichen Kulten (or the Black Book) and pre-human serpent men (Children of the Night and Worms of the Earth).

Wikisource and Wikilivres has several stories for enjoyment.  If you prefer audiobooks, LibriVox has several works as does Huffduffer.  These sites use public domain laws to publish works which will vary by country.

to the sorceror of auburn

Clark Ashton Smith (1912)
courtesy of Wikimedia

Today is Clark Ashton Smith's birthday.   As one of the Weird Tales triumvirate (with H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard), he helped to lay the foundations of the modern sword & sorcery genre. Smith was an artistic polymath, turning his hand to poetry, prose, painting and sculpture during his life and started writing at the tender age of 11.

The three of them borrowed elements from each other, with Smith creating the toad-god Tsathoggua, Mordiggian the Great Ghoul and the wizard Eibon whose presences in Cthulhu mythos and elsewhere are well-known.

Eldritch Dark is a prime resource for fans of Smith, with hypertext versions of his writing, a Zothique d20 guide and active forum.  You can find some stories in audiobook form at Huffduffer (hat-tip to Jim Garrison for that).

There is some contention around copyright for Smith's works especially for his Averoigne, Hyperborea, Poseidonis, Xiccarph and Zothique cycles, though this hasn't stopped some settings drawing inspiration from his tales (e.g. D&D Known World/Mystara).  While he's not explicitly referred to in Appendix N, he is surely one of the unnamed inspirations for AD&D.

review: future lovecraft by innsmouth free press

Metric: Stars.  Why?  Because they're right.  Really, what else do you propose for an anthology of Lovecraftian short stories set in the future?
DISCLAIMER: Based on a review copy from Innsmouth Free Press.
Overall: 4 stars (greater than it's parts, some cracking stuff here)
Future Lovecraft runs the gamut of Lovecraft's genre and it's settings reflects the myriad lenses in which we see the future.  From Prisoner-esque dystopias to post-apocalyptics where humanity seek mutation, and alien worlds where nanotech runs riot, the settings support the essential bleakness of Lovecraft's vision.  Some stories and poems sing, others crawl from the foamy brine.  All of them convey the horrors of an entity-filled, uncaring universe.

Stories: 4 stars  (varied in scope and execution, all of them interesting.)
The stories are a mix.  The opening stories are eye-opening aperitifs and not your typical eldritch horror.  From the virtual insanity of Inky, Blinky, Pinky, Nyarlathotep to Tri-TV's channel-surfing antics and the kitchen-sink catharsis of In the Hall of the Yellow King, this triptych serves as a timely reminder you're not in New England anymore Toto.  What follows next is a diverse smorgasbord of horrific sci-fi with distinctly Mythos slant. Rubedo, an Alchemy of Madness is as potent as the morphia dulling Eliana's senses.  Harmony Amid The Stars puts you in the head of a microbiologist diving into madness on a long-distance voyage to Barnard's Star.  The Comet Called Ithaqua reveals what happens when ghouls take to the stars.  PostFlesh reveals the fate of shipwrecks on a nano-ravaged world.  Go, Go, Go Said The Byakhee is post-apocalyptic, mutating, time-travelling tragedy.  Venice Burning is a deliciously dark take on a broken reality.  Myristica fragrans details shadowy horrors on a space station, giving hints of LeGuin or Tanith Lee.  Concerning The Last Days of the Colony of New Roanoke provides an archaeological point of view on ancient catastrophe, relived by those who didn't learn.  The Kadath Angle returns to Innsmouth for a space before going beyond.  Deep Blue Dreams reveals what happens when Mythos horrors become designer drugs.  Other stories in this volume are just as good, the above have particular interest for me.

Poetry: 4 stars (powerful stuff, may not be everyone's cuppa).
Lovecraft was an exponent of poetry and it's apposite that this collection includes Do Not Imagine, a powerful piece from the perspective of the aliens.  The Old 44th considers history and the Hounds of Tindalos. This Song Is Not For You reveals the charm of the piping from Azathoth's court. Transmigration laments the inevitable fate of the cultist, A Welcome Sestina from Cruise Director Isabelle Molyneux reveals the Mythos take on the adage 'you are what you eat'. The Deep Ones echoes the subject, I can imagine this chanted by Polynesian natives.  Finally Big Bro rounds off the volume with visions of the Crawling Chaos.  Again, there are other poems, these ones were of especial interest to me.

Admiration for the inclusion of strands of poetry in an anthology aside, Silvia Moreno-Garcia and Paula R. Stiles are to be commended for picking complementary stories and poems in distinct themes.  The diversity of authors and settings is a delight for those jaded with dreary New England shores and dissections of Lovecraft's racism.  This anthology shows the bleak universe that HPL and his peers advocated finds roots in all soils.  Which is as it should be.  The cosmic horrors dwelling beyond our apprehension care little about such pettiness.  This is a quality anthology and worthy of your attention if you're a fan of this genre.

the carnival of life

This month's RPG Blog Carnival hosted by Campaign Mastery is about Life and Death.  This is such a fundamental topic it cannot be contained in one post without a lot of compression.  In RPGs, typically not much is made of the first, while the latter gets more attention. Both can provide hours of ideas for gaming and have inspired numerous stories.  The arrival of new life is usually greeted with hard work and celebration.  Though this blog is fond of taverns, attending a birth makes a different 'getting the party started' scene.  In addition, the impact of a change in birth rates on a population is not to be understated.  This need not be human population either, the devastation of animal populations has forced human migration and caused calamity to communities.

• Population boom - The presence of a expanding economy, technological advances or even something in the water may lead to a population boom.  This may cause aggressive expansion into territories held by others, urbanisation and pollution.  With larger families comes  greater probability of your lineage surviving, more mouths to feed and issues around succession. Having used this to drive a horde of Neolithic kobolds against parties before, this works if you want to see a party think rather than fight.
• Population decline is an increasing concern in some industrialised countries.  An extreme case would be the cessation of birth, such as portrayed in Children of Men. The consequences for a community are severe as the balance between longevity and attrition shifts and survivors age without reinforcements barring immigration.  Being the last of your kind is a classic trope, ranging from Elric to Robert Neville.
• Gender imbalance by the proliferation of one gender transforms a society.  This may traditionally be caused by immigration, infanticide or war. This isn't always healthy for the society; an excess of men leads to unrest and militarisation among those of low status.  Environmental pollution has led to a shift towards female births by drastically reducing viable male population in some parts of the world.
• The appearance of unearthly children like The Midwich Cuckoos among the population is an indicator that something is changing.  Marvel has done this for years with the X-Men. For Apocalypse World or Mutant Future, Freakangels offers inspiration.  Characters may seek to prevent their ascendancy or to protect them from the authorities threatened by them.

Changing the base assumptions of a society by changing the ratio of young and old, male and female, normal and unusual makes for diverse, divergent cultures.  This difference makes settings come to life.

the phantom isles

From the voyages of Maelduin and St. Brendan to the Crocker Land Expedition, islands observed then lost to later travellers persist. While sailors are cast as unreliable witnesses and prone to tall tales, phantom islands persist in adventure stories even where the world is mostly known. In some cases it may be a simple case of mistaken navigation, where a fog bank or sand bar is mistaken for something more substantial.

Other circumstances have fantastic explanations like the leviathans of old; the Old English Fastitocalon mentioned by Tolkien in Tom Bombadil or the zaratan catalogued in Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings and later in al-Qadim. Others may be wreathed in enchanted mist like Hy-Brasil, set to appear when the stars are right. Though that phrase may indicate a seagoing encounter with a more horrific outcome of course.

All are opportunities for adventures. Misplaced navigation may take an expedition into a new world. Yet other errors are introduced by map makers, intended to flatter the courtly patrons of expeditions or deceive the gullible. When these maps hold promises of wealth or new lands, adventurers are drawn like moths to flame. And in many of the worlds we explore, there be dragons.

toolkit: five act structure

Writers from the ancient Romans to Shakespeare to Noh playwrights rocked the five-act structure long before TV and it's enduring appeal is evident, even when using the three-act structure as camouflage. Even if you're using the three-act structure, some of these points seem awful familiar...

Act 1 (Exposition) - Setting details (place and time) are defined, whether by a simple byline ("Normandy, 1941") or courtesy of a character.  Characters are introduced and their history outlined, hopefully to present them in a sympathetic light.  Tensions between characters or against their environment, intrigues form and future conflicts are highlighted moving to the inciting incident that provokes the story.  While Egri criticises the need for exposition, dropping inductive clues on setting into narrative is a fine art and sometimes the best way to tell someone is to, well, tell them.

Act 2 (Complications) - Things get complex as the characters develop alliances, bonds and ties.  The plot develops with situations that relate to, or which represent the conflict characters face.  Adversaries other than the main antagonist appear here, whether as extensions of the antagonist's will or pursuing their own goals. Interests clash, intrigues tie up and develop, tension builds and momentum is gathered. 

Act 3 (Climax) -  As the momentum in Act 2 reaches it's high point, our protagonist stands at the crossroads and facing conflict, either soaring towards victory or crashing to defeat.  At this point, for better or worse, the plot turns, either towards redemption for comedy or judgement for tragedy.  Irreversible actions are taken, some secrets revealed and for the protagonist, the world changes or hangs off the edge of a cliff.

Act 4 (Falling Action) - The consequences of Act 3 play out as characters and events respond to what happened at the climax, momentum slows while tension is built again by uncertainty, by false hopes or fears.  Reversals of fortune take place and the emotions steering characters are played out and resolved - grudges are incubated and alliances are renewed or broken.  If it's a tragedy, it looks like the protagonist can be saved.  If it's not, it looks like all may be lost.

Act 5 (Catastrophe) - The conflict is resolved, be it by one last battle, catastrophe, protagonist downfall or by a victorious transformation caused by a turn of events made probable by what has gone before and must leave the character in a different place to where they were before.  While the word catastrophe has negative connotations, the final act can be a positive experience.  The final act also includes the denouement (literally an untying of knots), intrigues are unravelled and final secrets are revealed. 

little brother

For a young adult book, this is exceptional stuff. There are techno-thrillers.  Then there are techno-thrillers like Little Brother who mix in geek chic, information security and social activism and get away with it.  This book is many things and somehow manages to achieve all of them, leaving you with the impression of a Swiss Army knife of a book Unlike Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon it gets in, provides information and gets out - a commando operation rather than a protracted war.  The message is quite clear - our society distrusts our children and they will beat poorly-designed ways to restrict their activities every time every time.  The tighter you grip, the more they slip through your fingers...

The impact of a terrorist attack on the BART amid an increasingly paranoid surveillance society results in the arrest of four truants for terrorism and leads to one fighting back with a little help from his friends.  There are few punches pulled with the detention scenes and rightly so, their effects on Marcus, Darryl, Zeb and their families are plausible.   The 'bad guys' are chillingly anonymous - even at the endgame there's no certainty of victory and along the way there are enough knocks and setbacks to make this battle a bitterly fought one for someone as young as Marcus who literally has his whole life to lose if the bad guys win - a slow death measured in decades of surveillance and social exclusion as 'one of them'.

Little Brother tips it's hat to 1984 and Abbie Hoffman's 'Steal This Book' as well as Kerouac's 'On The Road' and Allan Ginsburg's 'Howl' -Doctorow is a trend watcher par excellence when it comes to Internet culture, the rise of arphids (RFID tags) as covert surveillance tools, school netbooks pre-installed with government spyware and Harajuku Fun Madness alternate reality game mirror existing things.

Those familiar with Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom will be delighted to see he's improved in leaps and bounds (and Down And Out... was good stuff) since those heady days.  While a couple of characters (Charlie, M1k3y's cool Britmom) are fresh out of Central Casting, the plot is crisply logical even if the Department for Homeland Security seem toothless against the new XNet though Doctorow's portrayal of how public servants process surveillance data is chillingly accurate. 

The afterwords by Bruce Schneier and Andrew 'bunnie' Huang show that this rabbit hole goes deep indeed and challenges the readers to look at the world differently.   It's opened my eyes - I've never seen PKI cryptography explained so clearly or so succinctly.  It's like cyberpunk never died but became ubiquitous as John Lydon and Iggy Pop plan a Duranmas Duranmas advertising offensive.

To say there's gaming inspiration for all kinds of modern-era games might be an understatement on a par with space is big and fire being hot.  If you've lived in the shadow of the valley of the geek and you have pals who are counterculture and don't understand you (still!) then lend them this book.  You can download Little Brother from craphound.com for free but it's good enough to pay for.  If you're the kind of person who enjoys looking at the backstage notes, take a look at w1n5t0n.com, where the book is annotated.

campaign branding: pragmatics and you

Getting to understood can be a challenge when communicating.  This can be used to advantage in games as useful fluff to define a different culture (hat tip to Werewolf) and to encourage interaction and immersion. Everyone has experienced cognitive dissonance when the words aren't what's meant or when they've had a different persuasive effect to their intent or even the intent and the words. Communication and knowledge can be split into two streams.

• Information - The words and their arrangement.
  
• Context - The intent defined by relationship between the speaker/author and audience.

Most people get the first right yet the second is governed by a number of factors that can provide insight and inspiration and that may trip up the unwary.

Pragmatics is a field of linguistics dealing with how meaning is imparted in communication and where words may have a different intent or outcome depending on factors like context, emotion or intent, the relationship between speaker and audience, measure what isn't said (implicature) and what the message unintentionally reveals.




There are three elements to any communication.

• What is said, it's delivery and ostensible meaning (locutionary effect) which may govern
• The intent of the communication (illocutionary effect) which may express emotion ("Wow!"), request a course of action ("Your attention, please."), state a commitment ("I pledge my allegiance..."), state intent ("I pronounce you husband and wife") or understanding of reality ("I'm pregnant.")
• The actual effect (perlocutionary effect) which measures the psychological impact and outcome of the communication ("Would you like a cup of tea?") may reveal the speaker as a tea addict or merely willing to share a refreshing beverage.

In some cases, different rules of grammar (use of tu and vous in French) and words (honorifics in Japanese), statements to perform a function ("This meeting is adjourned."), the message aesthetics (poetry, slogan), and the purpose (to facilitate interaction e.g. "Nice weather...") can all impart different meanings. 

All this variation can be distilled into simple rules for particular cultures and races.  A culture that reveres magic use honorifics based on the ability to wield spells.  A feudal culture insists on different patterns of speech in court to those on the battlefield.  An industrious culture may view small talk as frivolous or even disruptive.  Using these tools may lead to different, enjoyable interaction and provoke thought among your audience.

default activities - beer!

The tradition of adventurers hanging out at a local inn, tavern or other place of alcoholic consumption is a fine and noble one.  Heroes like Conan, Elric, Prince Diarmuid, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser have all been patrons at one point or another and there have been luminaries behind the bar as well - Mike Callahan, Rick Schumann and Jack Fedogan to name but three.




This continued into RPGs via Dragon, the seminal Runequest setting Griffin Mountain, various parts of the Forgotten Realms and Tales from the Floating Vagabond.  Inns made it into text-based multi-user dungeons (MUDs) and bar-hopping is well-documented in World of Warcraft and other MMOs.  The local inn has sometimes been over-used in getting a party together - though settings like Dragonlance and Ravenloft have often taken advantage of such venues to great effect.  Socialisation, loosening of inhibitions, tall tales and outright mayhem may make for great adventures.

Want to join in on the fun?  Those who love random generators will enjoy Inkscape Ideas.  Alternatives include Wizards of the Coast and RPG Ideas and there is no shortage of blogs who provide examples of inns and taverns for games.  Also, if you fancy contributing to a brewing and gaming site, take a look at Fantasy Brewmasters.

(dedicated to Detective Chief Inspector Gene Hunt)

dead sexy

Society celebrates festivals of passion (May Day, Lei Day, Rusalka Week) and remembrance (Lemuria, Pentecost, Zartusht-no-diso).  Where cultures revere pale beauty as a symbol of power (no tilling fields for you!) and a connection between the realms of love and death is found.  Add to this the horror spawned by taboos around dead bodies and you've got some pretty potent gaming material.  How will characters deal with undead with motivations other than dietary ones?

1. Be My Persephone - An undead known in life for their lusts abducts someone to enact them on.  Can the characters rescue the victim before a fate worse than death claims them?
2. One last kiss? - The handsome prince has gained an obsessed admirer who dies unrequited.  Three nights later, the prince learns for some, death is no barrier to their passion and seeks outside help.
3. The Morning After - Someone wakes up undead with no idea how they became that way after a night of passion. They need to find out how this happened.  Can the characters solve the mystery?

This post was brought to you in conjunction with Zombie Awareness Month.

toolkit: plot bombs

Writing plot is like making a bomb.  Now my blog's on the watchlist (more readers!), consider how that metaphor holds up and what can be done with plots to optimise their effect.

Charge - Impact
The scope of impact desired will inform what kind of situational explosive is used.  Just a loud noise or do you need to bring a character's life crashing in flaming debris around them?  The latter requires more explosive, maybe incendiaries or excellent placement (say next to the petrol tank) so design the plot according to result.  Doing something that will only faintly annoy a character and hoping for devastation is foolish.  Equally it's possible to pack so much explosive that the situation simply will not work.

Guidance -  Delivery
This is also informed by your desired result and the resources available.  Delivery ranges from lobbing the plot like a grenade and hoping the character stays still long enough to sophisticated methods involving incentives, camouflage or luring them into a situation where they're close to explosive things (like the petrol tank example previously) so that the impact is multiplied.  Smart guidance imply flexibility and intelligence in delivery, does the situation allow for that level of control?  If not, then positioning is crucial otherwise you need to think of a different approach like the bouncing bomb.

Fuse - Time limit.
If the plot isn't resolved when time's up, Thing(s) Will Happen.  It's very rare for a plot to exist independently of time.  Fuses may be shortened, lengthened or deactivated. There is also the possibility of booby-traps to deter attempts to defuse. The fuse may be primed by a simple action (e.g. finding Mr. Claymore's tripwire) or primed in anticipation of character presence.

Dealing with duds
There are situations where the plot just won't work.  This may be due to the fuse not being primed or a failure to activate when events demand it.  In some cases, the plot may re-activate if interfered with.  You also have the option of using the same plot in a similar situation.  A simpler plot can be re-used more often than one that requires complex setup.  It's why tropes are popular and still effective even if most know how to defuse them.  In some cases, it's not always possible.

Plots need to impact the character for good or ill or why do we care?  Ambivalent plot events offer greater versimilitude.  It's rare that something is entirely good or bad even at turning points or the final resolution.  If it rewards your audience, then do it.

what it feels like for a girl

Women gamers are a growing part of our community.  Just like you they have a variety of attitudes and appearances.  There is a conversation to be had - whether it's approached with acceptance or fumbled with fear is down to us.   Just like you, they have a mutual interest yet it's still evident that they are being treated in a manner that doesn't serve them well.  The following presentation by Andrea Phillips at SXSW on how women are typecast in games struck a chord and two minutes later, I read this post by Dungeonmum. 

ARGs and Women: Moving Beyond the Hot Brunette

View more presentations from Andrea Phillips.

Using pink armour and pegasi, techno-tomboy trappings or kickassitude in leather and lace is playing with tropes and fire.  Strong, sustainable literary examples (Eowyn, Hermione Granger, Jessica Atreides, Paksenarrion) exist without using objectification and there are numerous examples of TV and game figures where fan service and going there isn't a key part of what makes the character enjoyable save only to a minority. The mismatch is all the more puzzling when you consider the following points.

How, when and what we talk about affects how we are perceived.
Attitude, presentation and timing all conspire to form how others perceive you.  Living in a small community has it's strengths yet be sure what you put out there will come back to you.  Our world is connected, not just islands but larger masses connected by fluid channels of communication.  Both islands of good practice where ideas are preserved and borders where ideas are exchanged are required.  And everyone keeps churning out new stuff - we are all inherently creative.

In all communication, there are only two routes - what serves your intent and what does not. 
This is 2010 and women count for a third of our community and half of our society.  Awareness of audience is key to success.  Using tropes is fine (Ari Marmell explains how The Conqueror's Shadow did this) if it gives a character authenticity and helps communication.  Yet our audience grows increasingly sophisticated with time.  Stereotyping is lazy thinking and offending a third of your audience to provide just about half with cheap thrills is poor design.

Authenticity + Audience Awareness  >  Lazy Thinking + Poor Design 

Which side of that equation are you and your products on?  And which do you think has greater appeal to all of your audience, not just your core demographic?  It's a challenge increasingly taken up by those finding a receptive and creative audience.

Where I've had successes is to treat women like a gamer who I respect.  I've provided spotlight moments as well as crafting situations to sensibilities.  Character focus and established relationships enable investment in a game and is something women gamers thrive on.  Some of my fondest gaming memories feature games where ladies managed intricate campaigns and sparked intense gaming experiences by challenging the accepted view of a campaign with their perspective.

Now it's your turn.  What would you change to make a game or story more entertaining for women?

women of mind

As today is Ada Lovelace Day,  introducing female scientists and scholars into your game may draw no particular response or a few looks depending on your setting.  Here are two historical figures you might want to draw some inspiration from if you want to portray women a little differently from the usual goddess of the arm fare you find in classical fantasy works.

Anna Comnena - The first woman to write a history was a Byzantine princess, the first and favoured child of King Alexius Comnenus who ruled during in the early 12th century.  A well-educated woman, versed in medicine, the classics, science and music she married Nicophoreus Bryennius, a historian with a claim to the throne.  She became her father's physician yet despite her efforts to save him, her younger brother ascended to the throne.  Byzantine politics being what they were, Anna plotted with her mother to overthrow her brother and put Nicophoreus on the throne.  Yet Nicophoreus refused and the plot was uncovered.

Anna, her husband and those involved with the plot left court and during this time Nicophoreus began writing a history of the former king Alexius but died before he could finish it.  Anna and her mother moved into a convent and Anna completed the history, adding in levels of detail and accuracy due to her experiences in court rarely seen in similar works of the time.  The Alexiad was a fifteen volume history in Greek and demonstrates Anna's extensive knowledge of politics, military tactics, astronomy, medicine and science as well as acknowledging the good works of her antecedents.  It also paints a picture of her isolation and disgust at her husband's unwillingness to seize power, noting perhaps their genders should have been reversed...

Sophie Germain - The first woman to be accepted in Parisian university and the Institut de France was the daughter of a wealthy silk merchant and banker.  She studied in her father's library as the French Revolution raged and devoted herself to mathematics on reading of Archimedes of Syracuse.  Self-taught in Greek, Latin and mathematics, she studied against her family's wishes. This defiance of social mores would continue as she adopted the pseudonym M. le Blanc, borrowing the notes of university professors and studied number theory as women were not allowed to study in Parisian universities in the early 1800s.

During this time she entered correspondence with Joseph-Louis Lagrange and Carl Friedrich Gauss both of whom eventually discovered her gender and maintained contact anyway.  She anonymously submitted a paper to the French Academy of Sciences and won a prize she could not collect for fear of scandal.  Yet her work on Chladni figures (modelling vibration patterns) and Fermat's Last Theorem finally gave her acceptance within the scientific community.  She tragically died of breast cancer before she could be awarded an honourary doctorate at Göttingen University.  Her work laid foundations for applied mathematics and mathematical physics used in skyscraper construction, acoustics and elasticity.

úatha: horror stories

Slainte! It's St. Patrick's Day.  Highmoon's Ponderings are running a carnival and hope you find the craic.  Celtic bards had a number of story formats, one of which was úatha or horrors where a protagonist meets something truly horrific. The Gaelic word úath signifies horror, usually supernatural.  It became linked to fúath, a shape or spectre.  Such stories often show a protagonist's courage or set them on the road to heroic deeds which may kill them. There are many monsters in Irish tales, some úatha deal with:

• Reptilian sea monsters.
• Horrific spectres
• Vicious thugs with something of the night about them
• Shapeshifting men and women.
• The confusion of battle that makes ally kill ally. 

One example is the tale of Fergus Mac Leda and the sea monster Muirdris at Loch Rudraige.  After Fergus gains the ability to breath water from capturing water sprites he travels to see the beast and violates a geas laid on him by the sprite.  The beast is so horrific to behold his face is frozen in shock, a condition that by rights should deny him the kingship of Ulster.  His subjects like him so much they prevent him from seeing his reflection until one day an angry serving girl blurts the truth.  Ashamed, Fergus seeks Muirdris to slay it with an enchanted sword named Caladbolg.  He does so, dying of exhaustion after a fierce battle that turns the water red with their blood.

Spectres (airdrech) are known to the Irish stories. Finn Mac Cumaill encounters phantoms on the road that try to offer him horsemeat on rowan skewers and that beat him and his friends when he refuses.  Cu Chullain faces a horrific spectre as a boy when the noise of a nearby battle wakes him and he looks for Conchobar, his king.  He finds his king wounded in a ditch who asks why he is here when he could die from fright on the battlefield at night.  The word is also used to describe female valley bandits whose piercing shrieks and martial arts unusually get the better of Cu Chullain until Laeg his charioteer taunts him.

Well then, Cú Chulainn’, said Laeg, ‘doomed coward, one-eyed sprite, your fury and your valour have gone since it is spectres that ruin you’.

This awakens Cu Chullain's battle-fury and he predictably goes on to tear them a new one.  The description of bandits and other night-folk as 'supernatural' or dreaded is congruent with the desperate fear they inspired  as they would not observe the laws of hospitality that most Irish honoured. This continued even into the rise of Irish Christianity and the story of Saint Moling who escapes from a family of particularly foul fúath.

Shapeshifting hags and warriors are notable, the loathsome hag promising riches to those showing it affection is a known Celtic trope.  The warrior is less so, Úath mac Imomain (terror, son of great fear) lives under a loch and challenges three heroes to a beheading contest in the Feast of Bricriu prescient of Gawain and the Green Knight.  Of these heroes, only Cu Chullain will stick his neck out to receive the reply.  This exemplifies the value that the Irish place on courage and honour.

Finally the horror brought about by the confusion of war is described as a terror.  During the Tain bo Cuilange when the hosts of Medb appear, Cu Chullain raises a war shout answered by the goddess Nemain and by the spirits and goblins of the glen.  The resulting confusion causes the army to panic blindly and lose a hundred warriors.  Though it may seem like exaggeration, histories of war are full of examples where confusion in the ranks has led to allies attacking each other.

The Irish tell a mean story and their ghost stories are no exception. Many of the classic tropes found in RPGs have a bit of Irish in them and if you're looking for inspiration, you could do worse. 

theme in the details and triangulation lists

"In war, victory
In peace, vigilance
In death, sacrifice"  

     -- Grey Warden motto, Dragon Age: Origins.

A recent RoleplayingTips article about the virtues of Dragon Age as example of good game story technique made a salient point about theme.  Theme lives in the details.  Reality is not blatant, heavy-handed messages are contrived. Neither is entertaining or fun.  So how to do this well?  There is a risk of going overboard.  Character diamonds, location design, story arcs and beats as well as theme - plenty to keep track of.  Getting there requires work, particularly if your theme is complex.

Common elements of theme and story lets each reinforce the other. 

Enter the concept of triangulation lists - a bullet point list of relevant items.  Here, the list defines your theme.  To prevent information overload, keep it to three things.  Ensure characters have at least one attribute or wrinkle that will match or conflict with an item on the list.  Reveal it by action or dialogue and where it's relevant to a plot arc, let that attribute change.  These list items may modify an existing attribute (hypotaxis).  The darker side of war is a recurring theme in Dragon Age, difficult plot choices provide and remove allies and the Warden encounters orphans and grief-stricken characters.

Or an item may exist in parallel to the existing idea (parataxis) so the audience makes their own connection by fluff information   Audience agency is a virtue with interactive entertainment like RPGs and your audience will probably make connections you didn't realise were there. Sometimes it doesn't work how you've intended, even for David Gaider, author of Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne so don't worry.  Sense-checking helps avoid passive voice, echoes (repetitive mannerisms) or even worse unintended tropes.  Roll with the punches and rework the worst while remaining true to the character. The perfect is the enemy of the good here.

(thanks to Hannah at Chaotic Shiny and Vi Åker Jeep)

prese prese!

This weekend is your last chance!

...to donate through the OneBookShelf Gamers Help Haiti program.
For your donation, you receive a huge amount of stuff including 3:16, Classic Spycraft, The Desire, No Dignity In Death: The Three Brides, Pathfinder Condition Cards, Serenity RPG, The Kerberos Club, Kobold Quarterly 11 (reviewed here) and lots of counters, terrains and tokens for any system you can think of. Obsidian Portal are also offering a $100 certificate prize if you re-tweet it.

...to go to the Helping Haiti Heal page. If you're a Harry Potter fan, you probably want to go here; lots of stuff (Potter and otherwise). Even if you aren't, the chance to get signed books by Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett and movie memorabilia is available.

In the words of the Governator "Go! Now!!"

finding the path

The route between landmarks or events is constrained by both space and time.  Charting these paths means you have considered the virtues of mapping and relative position between locations without handwaving it.  The last only needs to occur when you hit a tipping point of setting complexity.  There's a reason that every fantasy trilogy you've ever read has a map - the author needed to know where stuff was - with the notable exception of Terry Pratchett. 

"There are no maps. You can't map a sense of humour."
                        -- Terry Pratchett, Discworld author.

Eventually though the Discworld succumbed to cartography. 
Typically, there are three kinds of path:

Obvious - Taken by about 80% of your setting population. Clearly marked, maybe with milestones to show progress or landmarks to give navigational reference.

• Predictability - If you take this path, you will get to your destination.
• Ease of Use - This option is the most accessible (otherwise, why use it?) to the majority.
  

Obscure - Paths your environment allow that are less obvious.  These may require some exploration or even trail blazing.  Not all hidden paths are advantageous - for example the proverbial shortcut that takes twice as long. There are two reasons to go the road less travelled. 

• Opportunities - to reduce inconvenience (avoiding a toll) or reveals benefit (an untended apple tree).  This is one of the main reasons for adventure.
  
• Options - Where the obvious path is obstructed, you have an additional option. 

Least resistance - Favoured by liquids, winged things and the lazy.  Note the path of least resistance is not always rewarding or without hazard.

• Speed - Sometimes you're in a hurry.  You may not want to meet the travelling gypsies, find treasure or kill a dragon.  You might just want to go home.
  
• Safety - When you absolutely, positively have to get there.  Self-preservation is a concern raised in a number of blogs where heroism is tinged with pragmatism.
  

Designing with these paths (and their objectives) in mind enables you to anticipate particular strategies and can help build causality into your setting.  Including limited, minor choices on a particular path preserves a sense of choice without resorting to illusionism (a phenomenon in some games where no matter what you do you end up somewhere usually undesirable or divorced from causality) or railroading.

milestones

The milestone is a marker of progress.  The use of milestones to help navigation began in Roman times with  marble or concrete monoliths erected on the Appian Way.  They did not usually provide indication of distance to and from, preferring to inform you which Emperor commissioned it.  Later milestones included distances and this information increased their utility so that milestones and signposts are still used today.

Those familiar with the five room dungeon realise each room is itself a milestone.  This may seem obvious but is helpful in mapping out what is called in the writing trade as 'beats' and story arcs.  It can help to realise you have achieved certain objectives and how far you've already travelled - what you know getting here may be useful in helping determine what actions need to be taken.

In 4th edition D&D, a milestone is reached when you complete two encounters without a rest.  Rather than get into how that works or may potentially structure your sessions, milestones can be used as a resting point (or in some games a restore point) or basecamp to continue from. An interesting point, is it possible to capture the information from a game in play as a save point and would the game benefit? Hmmm.

Milestones can also serve as an indicator of how much further you need to go.  The five room dungeon is a useful metaphor.  You could be in a museum or railroad with many more stations.  If you know what you need to achieve the final goal (and if not, why not?) milestones indicate how much further you have to go - if you're on a time-sensitive plot, you may need to speed up or slow down.

Like the Appian monoliths however, the usefulness of a milestone is enhanced by giving additional information to the audience (if not the characters).  Milestones may be metaphorical or tangible.  Themed plots may indicate what kind of things lay ahead; not all cues may be explicit or encounters in their own right, a plot arc for undead may feature a skull by a milestone or fresh roadside grave for example.

As a navigational device, milestones are useful points of reference. While they are not as widespread as they were, the quality of information for your milestone can provide a sense of continuity and is helpful in the development of longer-term campaign play.

places to be

This month's RPG Carnival is about gaming and travel.  When on holiday, visiting different locations and doing something different is one of the main reasons you're there - or why travel?  Designing a location requires certain things in order to entertain your audience.. It's helpful to consider locations as landmarks - imagine the cover of your book or module as a starting point and think of that image then fill in the blanks - what would you hear, smell, feel?. 

Draw attention.
A strong first impression is essential, it's often useful to contrast with their base camp or where they've been previously in some significant way.  There are various options to explore..

• Environment - Exotic helps, difference is essential. Whether the environment is isolated or part of a wider domain it helps to be distinctive.  Mordor is not Rohan is not Lothlorien.  More extreme cases may change an environment entirely (e.g. The Nautilus in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea) in relation to the jump-off point.
• Excitement - Use the Rule of Cool as your guide and draw on your own interests for inspiration.  If you like board games, chessboard traps, mansion-based murder mysteries and irascible prospecting mules are perfectly acceptable.  You do have other interests?
• Goals - Why are they here?  Set any objectives you want to achieve early and sense check with the motives of your characters (and your audience).  If you're having to mallet them into compliance, you need to find out what they really want and if you want to, give it them.
• Senses - Heighten differences by emphasising sensory effects and using sense memory.  If the action takes place in an office, it doesn't matter if it's Hawai'i or Harrogate.  Bright lights, loud sounds, strong smells, crowded streets or corridors, it all makes a difference.  If you want the audience to move, show them the way. Stimulate them to go towards somewhere, dial it down or repeat a bit to move them on.
• Scale - Varying scale is also effective.  Small can be exciting, think Hansel & Gretel or Dog Soldiers and small houses in the woods.  Equally epic needs a setting equal to the task - pyramids, arcologies or moon-sized weapon platforms.  Variation in scale can be effective; The Prisoner moved between The Village and London on more than one occasion.

Bring me that horizon!
Navigating between (or within) locations can provide it's own benefits.  Being able to place yourself in relation to a landmark enables interaction (navigating Paris is easier along the Seine or near the Eiffel Tower).

• Altitude - Makes a difference.  How many stories can you think of where high places are used to begin or end a story?  By getting a higher perspective, you introduce a place or a visual cue to aim for while deep locations tap into the underworld meta-myth that Joseph Campbell expounds.
• The lay of the land - You can provide access or channel direction by a mountain pass, lost trails or riverboat journey.  The route taken can offer it's own excitement - the objective is to get there anyway.

Give options.
The choice of short-term vs. longer-term goals can give relief from the main objective that persuaded them to come here, particularly if achieving that goal is a long or arduous affair.  Three options at most, drowning in choice is nearly as bad as no choice at all.  Equally at least one choice needs to offer a reward of some kind, be it tangible or something more ephemeral.

• Activities - Few people do nothing on a journey, even if what they do is row the boat.  Imagine a landmark as an activity (e.g. dungeons are explore and pillage, mountains are climbing) and reward characters who engage with that activity.
• Foreshadow risk and reward - A choice needs to have two things.  A risk of a bad thing happening and a reward for doing something you want to encourage; these can be linked (e.g. getting a treasure chest out of a flooding sea cave) or independent of each other (e.g. crossing a bed of geysers to reach an abandoned monastery) according to your needs.
• Build tensions between options and goals - If you are able to pick up everything at that location then no problem.  If you have to choose between one or another it gets interesting.  Good choices make the journey easier, bad ones make it more entertaining.

Create a memory
When you get there, choices are made, actions are taken and rewards are found.  Make sure those actions and choices are memorable and that they matter.  Everyone has experienced a trip that when they got there was pretty enough and that bored them silly. Don't be that tour guide.

• Deliver on your promises - Foreshadowing promises an event will take place.  If you've left dragon foot prints there either needs to be a dragon, the skeleton of a dragon or a giggling kobold with big dragon-shaped snowshoes and flamethrower.  Why have Chekhov's Gun  if you're not going to fire?
  
• Make an impression - This not only goes for you but also for your characters.  Making a difference to their environment is one of the more rewarding things you can give without worrying about game imbalance.  Equally, going there and coming back should have had an effect on the character other than a change in wealth or shortage of ammunition.  Rewards and consequences let the audience know they do not exist in a vacumn but in a living, breathing world.

Your story or adventure is a holiday from reality - so work along similar lines to encourage your audience to take interest and participate.

fear itself

Fear is one of the key adrenal responses; the body cools and tenses as breath quickens and hackles rise.  Eyes and mouth flood with sensory data and oxygen.  It is obsessed with the future, anticipating the worst yet tied to surprise so much that Charles Darwin described it as "…so far akin to it…" and a symbol of loss of control and ultimately, loss of survival.

Bill Tancer in his book Click found people looked into fears about environments (heights), people (intimacy, rejection, clowns), animals (snakes), situations (success, death) and movement (flying, driving).  Other surveys include spiders, water, enclosed and open spaces and the perennial favourite, public speaking.   Extensive lists of phobias are found at Wikipedia, the eponymous Phobialist.com and Call of Cthulhu.

Engendering fear in a game environment has the added complication players aren't usually in an environment to enable or enhance fear so blase responses to horrific events become the norm.  Wading in rat-infested sewers while being hunted by cannibals is probably a big deal.  Not everyone has the facility or inclination to game in a disused warehouse or abandoned hospital so it's worth considering how to bring the fear.

Fear has cognitive stablemates like distrust, dread, horror, panic and terror.  There are common hooks that nearly everyone has; death, ostracism, loss of control.  Finding ways to bring these into play can help heighten or foreshadow fear.  Being hunted by cannibals in a town where everyone thinks you're unclean, criminal or heretic turns the screw. 

It's also a qualitative phenomena - reasons for fear can be tied to individual attitudes and mores  (a rogue may fear being caught more than death by poison) so the same thing may have a different response depending on player or character.  Attacking character strengths or taking advantage of vulnerabilities is an effective way to engender fear on an individual and qualitative level.

Fear is primarily concerned with avoidance or escape; to allow these is to release tension.  Deferring that release is OK for a short period of time; dragging it out can wear thin.  Dr. Richard Kimble and Number 6 were allowed victories and escapes from time to time and  this tradition goes back further than Flash Gordon and Superman with Republic serial last-minute escapes.

The rogue being chased by cannibals through rat-infested sewers was poisoned with something giving her the shakes in a theocratic town known for intolerance.  Acting in concert, each stimulus racks up the tension until things get interesting.  Raising the stakes in this manner is a good thing; remember in all this to let characters take effective action; don't cripple or incapacitate them with modifiers.

Loss of control may be an issue for some players whose motive to play is vicarious empowerment.  Equally, some players have hot buttons or issues around specific items or concerns.  Respecting boundaries and issues is crucial.  The game is a game and not worth jeopardising friendships over.  Who wants to be a jerk about it? Heroism is about transcending challenges and fears to achieve greatness among peers.  Fear is omnipresent as a survival reflex but heroes are known for courage and doing it anyway in the face of fear.