Review: The Other Ancient Civilisations: Decoding Archaeology’s Less Celebrated Cultures

Like plenty of my friends and acquaintances, I dabble in history, both by reading and perusing the YouTubes for credible historians, archeologists, and similar scholars. Therefore, Raven DaSilva's channel, "Dig It with Raven" comes up periodically in my feed as a recommendation. She has good content, delivered in an entertaining, forthright manner. So one of those recommendations was her announcement of publication of her first book for popular audiences, "The Other Ancient Civilisations: Decoding Archaeology’s Less Celebrated Cultures."

The premise of the book is to provide a survey of ancient civilizations that are either lesser known or otherwise not as widely taught as the usual suspects (e.g. Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylon, Persia). The various civilizations are spread across the six inhabited continents. I was familiar with about a half dozen of the selected societies from other readings, classes, and YouTube rabbit holes. 

The format of each chapter begins with a brief fictional vignette of a "day in the life" of an inhabitant of the civilization, then a deeper dive into the known history, timeframe, significance and artifacts. MAny of the selected civilizations were either influential on or assimilated into later, better-known cultures, so their existence echoes on within those nations. I did learn a good amount from the chapters, particularly of a few North and South American and African civilizations that I had little or no knowledge of. 

Appendix N vs Appendix N

This was lost in my "Drafts" folder for about a year, and revived due to a post on Bebergal's book by a Redditor. So here ya go:

***

I'm not a "student" of Appendix N, per se, although I had an inadvertent exposure to many of the books during my itinerant reading of youth: Lest Darkness Fall, Hiero's Journey, the Pellucidar stories, Lovecraft, Derleth, Tolkien (of course), and Wellman (via his non-Appendix N "Silver John" books). Mostly I didn’t ‘know’ these were Appendix N books, and although I bought the 1st Edition Dungeon Masters Guide new, I never took the deep dive into the Appendices. The books were just good stories, and thematic to what I was reading at the time.

More recently, I've explored Lieber, plus recent listens to authors such as Jack Vance, Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith via audiobooks on long drives. I recently listened my way through Princess of Mars as a work accompaniment.

In 2020, I saw a link to a collection of short stories by Appendix N writers, touted as a survey of writers influential on Dungeons & Dragons. There was a limited hardcover run, so, intrigued, I sprung for it, and shared the info to a couple of social media sites. I was surprised to get comments along the lines of "Why did he steal the title from the Appendix N book?" "Who does he think he is?"

Surprisingly, books can share titles, or have similar titles... Who knew? 

So yes, two similarly-titled books. One is a collection of stories, and the second, a collection of essays reviewing the eponymous stories and novels. So I bought both. 

Mini Review: Ocean at the End of the Lane (and a critter)

"I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content. I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else."

https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-End-Lane-Novel-ebook/dp/B009NFHF0Q

How to describe this without a hugely number of spoilers...

A young boy meets an odd girl, her mother, and grandmother down the lane. The boy and girl have a few misadventures, and send a naughty housekeeper away.  The boy grows up.

That's pretty much what I can spoil. I think.

A short novel or long novella (about 180 pages), the book is a reasonably quick first read.  Some people mentioned reading it in a sitting, I took two short evenings for a re-read, after not reading the book since we purchased it when new. The book draws you along, with short, evocative chapters.  That said, this is Gaiman, and there is a density of subtle detail, easy to gloss over, and worth a reread.

How old are you really?" I asked.

Eleven."

I thought for a bit. Then I asked, "How long have you been eleven for?" 

She smiled at me.

Gaiman, as often, weaves together a a world of intersecting reality and unreality - I wouldn't call the forces and players in the book 'magic' because they are appear to be much older and more subtle than such a simplistic label...

"We don't do spells," she said. She sounded a little disappointed to admit it. "We'll do recipes sometimes. But no spells or cantrips. Gran doesn't hold with none of that. She says it common." 

In the course of the book, the narrator and his mysterious friend interact with forces out of of time, including a manipulative, malign intelligence that manifests itself and ingratiates its way into the narrator's family.

Powerless, the narrator makes a desperate flee to the mysterious womens' home for their assistance in dispelling the being.  After consultation and failed negotiation with the being, the girl calls ethereal predators to their aid in dispatching the being.

"High in the sky they were, and black, jet-black, so black it seemed as if they were specks on my eyes, not real things at all.  The had wings, but were not birds. They were older than birds,and they flew in circles and in loops and whorls, dozens of them, hundreds perhaps, and each flapping unbird ever so slowly, descended."

And then things go sideways....

No more spoilers, and you'll need to read to find out why an ocean is as large as it needs to be....

***

And - inspired by the quote above - a bunch of angry birds:

Mini-Review: The Year 1000

A couple months back, Colin Green mentioned picking up some new reading material of history for adding flavor and verisimilitude to one of his campaigns.

I recommended The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, An Englishman's World.

It had been several years since I read the book, so I took a quick burn through to remember its high points.

So here we go ...

As I've groused about before - history is taught poorly, so finding a well-written, entertaining history book is of value. The Year 1000 definitely meets this criteria.

Like many histories, the challenge of the time period is the general lack of surviving documents - either from lack of initial documentation, preservation, or destruction by later regimes.  As the book denotes, the surviving direct documentation for the time period in England may fill a bankers' box.

The book itself is themed around the Julius Works Calendar, one of the few surviving written works of that time period, and describes passage of a year at the approximate turn of the millennia, near the end of the period of Anglo-Saxon rule in England.

Each chapter is inspired by the month's calendar page, and describes both common life and activities for the month, as well as a larger theme for overall English culture or leadership. And, as the book looks at the turn of the millennium, it also uses the calendar as a tool to illustrate the transitions that England underwent during that era, such as unifying from four kingdoms into one under a centralized monarchy, progressions of strong and weak leadership (Alfred the Great vs Aethelred the Unready), the conflict and partial rule by the Danes, and the impending succession conflict between Harold Godwinson, Harald Hardrada, and William of Normandy...

For instance, the July chapter begins with a description of the 'hungry gap,' the annual period between spring and the harvest of the first crops where food stores were exceedingly low, before segueing into a discussion of the evolution and spread of monastic worship and life in the latter part of the first millennia. The chapter then expands on the monarchy (under King Edgar) using the church to legitimize the rule, and the church's role as a repository and distributor of the written word.

Overall, the format make for a fun, easy read, with informative chapters that don't drag.  By combining common life and greater culture, the book builds a whole world, not simply a collection of dates and events.

And for the aforementioned gaming verisimilitude, the book provides much color for background as the players encounter or interact with both commoners and notables in their travels. The monthly format can provide fun "what's going on in the background" descriptions depending on local seasons and activities.  And, of course, the "real history" of invasions, bickering fiefdoms, successions, and growing and waning cultural influences may provide much grist for adventue or campaign seeds. 

Enjoy!


(I discovered thru Anchor/MeWe that at least three other people also bought or were considering the book, so I hope that they are enjoying it as well...)

Mini-Review: The Little Ice Age

I've often groused about how history seems to be taught so poorly - at least my exposure to it in middle and high school. I didn't have a well-taught history class until college - where I was actually taught by a history prof (Hist 103: "Nomads of Inner Asia") - rather than a coach who needed class assignments.

I learned history on family vacations - where we stopped at every historical marker and plenty of museums, other travel opportunities, and picking and choosing books that piqued my interest at a given time... The single biggest flaw/challenge with teaching history is putting it in context - the 'why' of history, i suppose.  I'ts easier to place context when you are standing on the roadside, reading a historical marker overlooking a valley tracked by immigrant trails of the US Western Expansion, or perhaps trying to understand the setting of a semi-historical movie, or attempting to better understand the relationships between cultures and religions that extend into modern times....

Enough bitching...

Onto context - here we are gaming on our typically faux-medieval milleu.  Not having been in an ongoing campaign - how much does weather and climate really enter into most games?  There are certainly plenty of tables for randomizing weather, but how often do DM's crack them, and the associated benefits and challenges of travel and adventure during different seasons?

Enter The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 purchased used at the local Goodwill for the princely sum of $2.99. 

Briefly, the book outlines and discusses the period of climatic variation/instability between the earlier Medieval Warm Period and the beginning of the Industrial Age. A number of factors lead to generally colder and wetter conditions in the Atlantic Ocean and Europe, with associated stress on culture and populations (there is limited information from other portions of the world, so the book focuses on Europe) . 

Different regions and leaderships took differing strategies (if at all) in the face of the unknown -

The English and Dutch became more flexible and innovative in their land use and food production, while the French maintained more traditional feudal-era practices and management. This led to certain resiliency on the formers' part (although not completely effective) and contributed to increased famine and the eventual French Revolution for the latter. 

The economically and nutritionally important cod fisheries of the North Sea collapsed due to decreasing sea temperatures and pack ice - the fishermen followed the cod east, into more distant and dangerous fisheries (there is somewhat credible evidence that Breton and Irish fishermen fished cod off the North American coasts in the 1400's and were perfectly aware of a continent there, but like any good fishermen, were bane to give up the location of a good fishing hole....)

Glaciers advanced from the Alps, blocking passes and destroying or putting towns at risk.

Landholders experimented with new crop rotation and breed adaptation. New crops were adopted, including the potato from the New World.  Followed by the risks of monocropping in the case of Ireland...

Of course, during this time, Europe also began its surge of exploration and colonization, the Renaissance and Enlightenment took place, and Continent-wide political upheavals and wars mapped out modern political boundaries. So there's that....  Instability can breed innovation and action...

Gaming content and context:
As discussed above, the weather and longer term climate is a local/regional stress-driver.  Do the characters experience restricted travel and movement, or effects on their health?
Can a bad winter (or series of bad seasons) spur an invasion or conquest for resources - land, food, etc. Or perhaps take advantage of a weakened populace and military? 
Are the characters moving among other displaced populations,  and becoming caught up in political instability or intrigue?
What about prices and availability of food, other consumables, and equipment.  Does a small, impoverished are even want a few extra mouths wandering through, or are they firmly asked to keep moving? 

Just some thoughts...  You'll come up with more creative and appropriate elements to your world than I can.

Book Review: Noblesse Oblige

I originally found Uri Kurlianchik through his DND Kids blog, where I enjoyed his observations and tales of running games/herding adolescents.  So when his announcement of a new book came across my MeWe feed, I couldn't pass it up.  Besides, I had a long plane ride coming up, and paper-based reading fare is my favored travel entertainment.

So here's a synopsis and review:

There's no one to rescue the Princess.

Our adventure takes place in a decadent outpost at the edge of the solar system near the border with the insanity-laced Oort cloud and its threatening, alien occupants (the appropriately-termed horror vacui). The unnamed Princess arrives at the asteroid outpost-mansion of an eccentric outlaw and immediately finds herself to be the center of attention, but not in a way that she is used to, or even remotely comfortable with.... For she is to be auctioned off to the highest bidder among a group of equally eccentric and murderous characters.

So marooned with this rogues gallery, with only a ferret (that turns out to be much more than an emotional support animal) and a rapidly-depleting personal micro-armory, she seeks resources and unreliable allies in her attempts to equal the manipulations and machinations of her 'suitors.'

As her 'suitors' get eliminated, leaving increasingly dangerous and deceitful foes, our Princess resorts to greater subterfuge and methodologies as the stakes rise. Will she triumph?

The book is a fun romp in a dystopian future ruled by capitalist-monarchies. Each chapter is headed by an appropriate Dune-like quote with responses/commentary by the characters. Interspersed flashback chapters have vignettes of the various protagonists, linking them, and creating backstory. The Princess is no Mary Sue, the situation remains tenuous throughout.  But she rises to the occasion from a sheltered young woman to a formidable opponent through her own keen observations, recollections of near-forgotten lessons from family and advisors, and resourcefulness. For those of us who enjoy our futures slightly dark and cynical, with a haughty heroine who can't even believe that she's having to put up with these indignities, grab a copy.

Mini-Review: Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness

Time for a brief look at a time and place in history that passes under the radar in too many history classes (Really, does anyone learn anything in a history class, particularly high school?).  That is - parts of the world that are not Western Europe at some time between the end of the Roman Empire and perhaps the Renaissance.  

Anyway, I believe that this particular book came onto my radar via +Matt Jackson in some post or discussion regarding Viking history and influences.  

Link

Good read - it is primarily excerpts/fragments from Ibn Fadlan's travels, as well as many other Muslim authors in the 900's thru 1100's.  The authors/documentarians are traders and missionaries, intent on building relationships through both commerce and conversion. And gaining intelligence on these mysterious, intimidating folks from the north lands that spend half the year swathed in dark and cold.  The authors who traveled north during the cold months write of their hardships in great detail - voluminous furs and clothing, frozen rivers, difficult transportation, short days.

While the book is best(?) known for Ibn Fadlan's very detailed description of an authentic Viking ship-burial, the passages also document early conversion of Turkic tribal leaders to Islam, Jewish trade networks extending to China and the Asian subcontinent, even an early description of the Polish city of Krakow. Speak of interactions and vibrant trade between cultures and religious groups: Muslim, Jewish, Christian, 'pagan' faiths. It's a good document regarding interaction with the Rus (Swedish Vikings who settled Russia, became traders, and gave the country its name), as well as a glimpse into the travel and trade of west Asia, Asia Minor, and Eastern Europe pre-Crusades.

Like many similar texts, the collection is a mix of observation and myth/hearsay.  The writers provide detail of the peoples who they interact with, and speak of both commercial enterprises and the commodities of areas, as well as describing mythical locales and people as Alexander's Wall and the tribes of Gog and Magog.

Lihiy Div (Marsh-men) for your old-school gaming joy

One of our favorite neighborhood haunts is a Russian-themed bar owned, in part, by an emigre, and where we often find ourselves eating potatoes and dumplings, drinking Baltika, and watching Russian movies. The ironic thing is that the subtitles are also in Russian, so most plot interpretation is via inference. One of the rotating films on the playlist is the Tale of Tsar Saltan based on a poem/fairy tale by Alexander Pushkin.

Anyway, a plot hook to remove the Tsar from his capital involves going to war against this bunch of clownish marsh-dwelling folk.

For all the set-up and pomp, they are fairly easily defeated by putting the marsh grasses to the torch and some rather comical cannon-fire. In the end, hostages are freed and several of the marsh-men who didn't beat a hasty retreat are ended up captured...

(Pardon me if I don't have a correct name for these miscreants – They aren't named in the film, and my usual Google-fu prowess came up with limited info – so they are named for wild men of the marshes in Ukrainian lore....)

Lihiy Div (Marsh-man)
HD: 1+1
AC: 7 [12]
Atk: 1 weapon (1d6+1)
Move: 12
Save: 17
AL: C

Periodically erupting from the marshes at the edge of civilization, the Lihiy Div bands are stunted, primitive humanoids.  Their appearance is almost a parody, appearing to be swathed in marsh grasses and furs, and almost headless, with bulging eyes, although this may be a mask worn to frighten foes and increase their own morale. Low-technological, they will tend to be armed primarily with bone and wood weapons. While Lihiy Div primarily raid farms and similarly poorly-defended areas for foodstuffs and livestock, they will occasionally kidnap people for unknown rites or sacrifice. 

Lihiy Div may be typically encountered in groups of 12-24 raiders with a 3rd to 5th level leader (60% fighter/40% shaman).  However, on rare occasions, larger congregations of the marsh-folk will form for raiding and kidnapping, although the impetus for these eruptions from the marshes is not clear.

 ***

Ok, so what if you want to run a PC as one of these illiterate, hide-and-grass wearing yahoos?

Lihiy Div 
Requisites: None
Prime: WIS
HD: D6
Move: 12

Advance/save as cleric.

You speak your own, guttural language, and may speak a max of two others at a competency of pidgin to simple conversational, with no written knowledge/literacy.  And math is hard!  You can count to ten.

You are proficient in the simple weapons of the hunter-gatherer: dagger (stone), club (wood or bone), spear (stone), staff, hand axe (stone), and sling. As a “primitive,” you eschew steel.  However, you can craft exceptionally keen blades of stone/glass that cause +1 damage to unarmored/lightly armored opponents.  You may create 1d6 of these per day, depending on available resources.  The 'blade' may be a dagger, spear point, or axe blade. 

Allowed armor includes hide (leather) armor, and perhaps a wood/rattan shield.

You maintain a healthy suspicion and fear of magical forces: +2 vs magic
You've eaten some weird shit and drank nasty water: +2 vs poison/disease

Lihiy Div with Wis >15 may be attuned with Nature and may cast druid spells at -1 level if desired.  You may use a magic item usable by a druids.  You may use potions, but must save vs. poison for them to be effective.

Option: Perhaps you don't want to be a simple mud-footed marsh-dweller.  You can pick/roll a Favored Terrain to be a simple dweller from elsewhere... In your “home” terrain, you have only a 15% chance of becoming lost. You have a 3 in 6 chance to provide sustenance for yourself per day, and a 2 in 6 chance to provide sufficient victuals for a party. This increases by one per five levels. Pick/roll one, PCs with a WIS>15 may choose a second:
1. Plains
2. Forest
3. Mountains
4. Tundra
5. Jungle
6. Desert

Mini-Review: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe

I just completed reading Kij Johnson's The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe.  (disclaimer: Kij is a friend of mine, met through a mutual friend and rock climbing).

The book is a direct descendant of H.P. Lovecraft's Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, and takes place within Lovecraft's Dreamlands.  Vellitt Boe, a professor at the Ulthar Women's College (the town with the cats) is awoken one night with news that one of the college's star students has disappeared, running away with a 'dreamer' - a person from the 'waking world' - our Earth.  The two have a head start, and through machinations of their own, appear to have escaped back to the dreamer's homeland.

Professor Boe is tasked with finding an alternate way to escape the Dreamlands, track down the truant student, and return her to her native land.  Because, it appears, the young woman is more than simply a love-smitten student, and her disappearance could have catastrophic consequences for both Ulthar and the Dreamlands.

Johnson returns us to the terrain first laid out be Lovecraft in his Randolph Carter stories, among others.  Boe, in her quest, makes stops at many of these locales, revisiting the places, people, creatures, and mad godlings created by the influential writer.

And, indeed, in her back-tracking, Boe (and Johnson) reacquaints us with Lovecraft's geography, not through the eyes of a dreamer, but via those of a resident of that dark and often-horrific land.

Boe travels across the Dreamlands, seeking counsel and access from a number of personages, including a couple from her own past.  Her travels in pursuit of the lovers gives her moments to reflect on her own youthful travels and loves, before settling in as a staid professor of Mathematics at the college.

What the book does well, in its themes, is to return us to a point of inspiration and original discovery.  Johnson, in the liner notes, recalls first encountering Lovecraft in adolescence, and her own inspiration to return to those macabre lands.  Like many of us in writing, gaming, and other creative places - both taking inspiration, and wholesale re-tooling, from the artists who came before is part and parcel of the trade.  And, like many of us, the middle-aged Boe ruminates on her own past and path, and recalls her own adventures, both productive and foolish, which brought her to her current occupation and place in the world.  And, in spite of her dogged pursuit of the student, she has empathy for those passions of youth gone by.

All in all, a fun read, and a fine re-visitation of a geography and works that inspired many later writers and the genre.

Which reminds me, I need to re-read Kadath, myself...

And gugs never forget...

Mini-review: Tacitus' Agricola & Germania

Tonight, a brief review of two of the Roman writer Tacitus'  best-known works - The Agricola and The Germania.

Tacitus lived in the late First-early Second Century, A.D. and was an administrator, senator and writer during his life.  He weathered Domitian's corrupt reign, and served in the Roman colony in Britain, likely in some administrative capacity.

His time in Britain was spent under the command of Julius Agricola - the commander of the colonial military and Tacitus' father-in-law.  Tacitus had ample opportunity to study Agricola's leadership style and document it for posterity.  Agricola had taken command of the colonial forces in AD 69, approximately 9 years after Boudica's failed rebellion.  Agricola secured Rome's hold on the island, a well as expanded the empire's influence, both by military action and expeditions (including as far north as present-day Scotland) and by assimilation and 'civilizing', including construction of Roman baths and theaters.

Tacitus wrote a glowing biography of Agricola, describing his administrative and tactical skills in glowing terms.  Good way to stay on your dad-in-law's good side...  But more likely a not-so-veiled commentary on the corruption and graft of the Roman leadership and society.

The second piece in the collection is the Germania, which may almost be considered a follow-up to Caesar's Gallic Wars. The Germania focuses on the tribes beyond the Roman frontiers formed by the Elbe, Danube, and Rhine rivers.  Tacitus catalogs the German tribes, telling of their sizes, dispositions and cultures. But again, he couches them in a sideways commentary on the Roman leadership, describing the honor and self-discipline of the 'uncivilized' Germans.

These two books are classics of early 'histories' along with Herodotus, Prokopius, Caesar, and other contemporaries.  Tacitus' writing style, as translated, is a straightforward, clear read.  I pounded through the whole book on a 2.5 hour flight.  Like his contemporary historians, he played fast and loose with details, and there are many geographical errors, as well as descriptions based on hearsay.

But where the books are useful, especially Germania, are as snapshot resources/inspirations for tribal groups a party may encounter in their journeys.  Tacitus describes various traditions, leadership, martial styles, and appearances of the various tribes - any of which may plucked wholesale, or mixed and matched for colorful and useful NPC groups. The Suebi have elaborate hairstyles, the Semnones may only enter a sacred grove while bound by a particular cord, Chatti warriors wear an iron ring until they have killed their first opponent in battle.  Some elect kings, or make decisions in raucous congresses, some are cheered in battle by their women. Fleet-footed warriors keep up with their own cavalry.

So a good piece of found inspiration - grab a copy or download and pick and choose your next barbarian horde!

RPG Blog Carnival - Gates and Portals - 2

A second brief meditation on this month's Blog Carnival - Gates and Portals - hosted by Phil over at Tales of a GM...

While many folks have been envisioning a myriad of gates and guards and devices for opening and closing of portals, both magical and mundane, let's take a quick look at wards...

And, for a bit of inspiration, how about a story perhaps familiar to many of us. The Passover.

(Disclaimer: I'm not Jewish or any sort of Biblical scholar. I know the Passover via the book of Exodus (and that movie with the former head of the NRA), so if I get anything incorrect, please feel free to correct me. Additionally, I don't think that the stories and mythologies of the Bible get a lot of Appendix N love...)

Most familiarly, the Passover is associated with the 10th Plague brought upon the Egyptians during Moses' petitions to free the Israelites.  To recall, any home not properly warded would be visited by the Angel of Death, who would take the life of firstborn children.  Any warded home would be 'passed over' and left unmolested.

Here is the evocative scene from 'The Prince of Egypt'...

The ritual and 'material components' of the warding are very specific:  "3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, 'On the tenth of this month they are each one to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers' households, a lamb for each household. 4 Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at twilight. 7 Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. 8 They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. 9 Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails. 10 And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire. 11 Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste-- it is the LORD'S Passover.…"

According to my half-vast research of wikipedia and other such hallowed sources, the Passover actually predates the Exodus as a springtime warding or protection rite, and   the prescription includes using a hyssop bough for painting the blood onto the lintel.

Not having read this since teen Bible study, something interesting that I hadn't noted before is that the blood is both spread on the lintel, and consumed (along with the meat of the sacrificial lamb), thus extending or fortifying the protection from the portal to the inhabitant as well, as sort of redundancy (or perhaps an early form of 2-step authentication).

Now, this isn't a unique traditional warding by any stretch of the imagination - many cultures have wards of one sort or another.

A quick summary - a sacrificial animal meeting particular criteria, its blood both spread on the door lintel and consumed, and its meat cooked in a specific way and consumed with accompanying foodstuffs, all while wearing your travelling clothes.  Oh yeah, and don't go outside...

So to create some veracity in a game/story environment, perhaps add the necessity of collecting rare components or knowledge as prerequisites for the ward itself... Building tension and time-pressure before the approach of a physical, magical, or spiritual threat could create some excellent game moments or opportunities. Likewise, it can add to the living nature of the cultures or systems in place in the game world.

"Ok, Dingwall, here's what you need to do to protect your castle from the Wight-bear.  Take the bark from the foo-tree collected under the gibbous moon, mash it into a poultice with some tapioca using a rubber-tipped arrow. Wipe it on the portcullis with a Backscratcher +1, and dab the rest under your armpits, as well as those of everyone in your household.  Eat of the Sacred Chicken Pot Pie of Swänsön.  Oh yeah, all while wearing a thneed."

The Maxx

'Twas my birthday last week.

Came home to a few Amazon boxes from the wife.  Seems that she wandered back into the dark recesses of my wish list and found some 90's goodness in the form of Sam Kieth's The Maxx - a lovely trip through a surreal melding of reality and subconscious (with a healthy helping of suppressed traumas...).

I'll re-read the books and re-watch the original MTV shorts and post up a review when I get back from vacation.

And she got me some art pens - I'm going to give  +Dyson Logos and +matt jackson a run for their mapping money...

Ok, maybe not.  But scribbling will occur...

Off to the desert for a week. To my two readers and all the Russian spam sites, see you when I get back.

Ebay finds and filling in white spaces on the maps

Ok, so I proselytize on geology here and there on the blog. And in that, I also occasionally collect geological curiosities - and not just specifically those picked up off the ground. That includes the occasional old text or map:

Blurry picture of a book

In this case, one of my saved Ebay searches pulled up an old American Geographical Society Annual Proceedings, 1874 edition.

The book documents the 1872 annual report, as recorded in their annual meeting in New York City, March, 1873.

I haven't read the treasurer's report yet

So, what was that august organization talking about 143 years ago?

A quick thumbing through "The Geographical Work of the World in 1872" reveals many notes on the opening of the West after the Civil War.  Expeditions into the Southwest, exploring and defining Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada, or tracing across the Basin and Range along the 40th Parallel through Utah and Nevada.

An expedition by one Professor Agassiz along the western coast of South America, doing a comparative study of the infant science of glacial geology and Ice Ages.  Agassiz was the controversial father of glacial geology, and much of my work in the glacial terrain of the Northwest hearkens back to his original interpretations of the landforms left by ice sheets.

A certain J.W. Powell was poking around the Grand Canyon. This was a few years after his legendary expedition along the Colorado River through the canyon. Powell went on to head the fledgling U.S. Geological Survey.


A good portion of the proceedings are dedicated to a study of the Verrazzano Map of the east cost of North America. Giovanni da Verrazzano, an Italian explorer employed by France, was the 1st European (well, besides those hale Norsemen) to explore the East Coast, tracing between the current Carolinas north to Canada in 1524. Two years before, the ragged survivors of Magellan's circumnavigation returned to Spain, inflaming another round of exploration seeking a water passage through the unexplored North American continent, as well as to begin to lay claim on this new land, as the colonial powers vied for control of the land and resources.

At this point, there was a new white space on the world's maps, and no one knew how huge it was, yet.

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His intricate map depicts the coastline and predates St. Augustine, Florida by 40 years, and the Jamestown, Virginia settlement by over 75 years. Any old map is fascinating, as it is part of the evolution of human understanding and interpretation of the physical world we traverse.

This map, although rudimentary in many ways, and missing many significant landforms and waterways, was still very accurate given the methods of the time, and later maps would build from this reference. And for us Westerners, a place does not exist prior to its mapping (the indigenous people may have a disagreement with this, though...)

One step removed from 'here be dragons'

Which leads to the purpose for my purchase of the book.  A section holds a long treatise of the explorations of the geography and geology of the Northwest. My skimming of the article mentions many places familiar to me along the west side of the Cascades in Washington; Mount Rainier, Grand Mound, the Skagit River.  A number of articles also discuss the geography and geology of the Cascades, Columbia Plateau, and southern British Columbia.

And it describes a few places that no longer exist...

There are no more falls on the Columbia River, all drowned beneath dams in the name of navigation, irrigation, and power.

And to add to my collection of old Mt. St. Helens collectibles, a print of a volcano known, at one time, for its symmetrical peak, which slid and exploded away in May, 1980...

Which is why I collect these documents.  As I said above, maps define areas.  Both those extant, and those no longer present, whether by the hand of Nature or man.

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Ok, to circle back to gaming, since that's what this blog is ostensibly about...  How does a document like this book inspire or inform our own gamebuilding?

The players find/receive a map - is it old? How accurate is it - are features missing, misplaced, or misinterpreted?  Is the scale totally borked? What was the purpose of the map? Who crafted it, with what priorities? The example map was created by navigators, viewing a coastline - attention is paid to inlets, waterways, and hazards. The land beyond a few brief explorations is terra incognita.

Or in the case of the latter examples - what if a landmark, feature, or goal is gone or irrevocably altered?  Do our explorers miss it?  Is it just a huge hole in the ground? Or buried, or wiped away by cataclysm?  Is this part of the mystery of the adventure, or a derailment of a goal?

Anyway just some musings.  Back to reading the minutes of the meeting.

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UPDATE:

Ok, got through the newly adopted bylaws and flipped beyond the aforementioned Northwest papers.
Two more articles are hidden in the back.

#1 - A study of the 1492 Martin Behaim globe (speaking of unknown spaces on maps).

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The globe, compiled from the best available knowledge of the time, depicts Europe, Africa, Asia, and scattered Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific islands. The globe contains a significant gap in scale, and information of the Americas, of course, but the author discusses its influence on Portuguese (de Gama, etc.) in exploring an eastward path to Asia around Africa, and Columbus' westward intent.

#2: A letter, presented at the conference on behalf of H.M. Stanley, who was laid up from complications of malaria and apologized for not making the dinner.  After all, he had just returned from Africa where he had located David Livingstone, who had been missing for 6 years during his explorations of eastern Africa...   White spaces filled in.

Grimjack

When wandering through the local Half Price books a few months back (ostensibly to just buy Divergent for the daughter), I stumbled on compilation copies of a part of the Grimjack comic series (Legend of Grimjack, Volumes 1-3). I'd first read the series in the late 80's when sharing a house with a comic-hound (I was also exposed to Moore and Miller, Chadwick's Concrete, early Grendel, X-Men, etc. during that time). The series was written by John Ostrander and inked by Tim Truman, and was one of the original series produced by the now-defunct First Comics. Grimjack started out as a backup feature in First's 'Starslayer' comic, but rapidly gained traction and was granted his own standalone series. The series ran for 81 issues between 1984 and 1991.

Grimjack, in his usual cover pose - cigarette, cutlass, and poor trigger discipline.

The series opened up my mind for its setting - the pan-dimensional city of Cynosure, where realities met, popped in and out of existence, and generally mucked things up. Humans rubbed elbows with fantastic creatures, aliens and gods. Magic worked in one block, technology the next. A wise brawler carries a blade and a gun, in case one or the other failed in some pocket universe hidden in a alleyway. The next closest setting to this that I had read were the Terri Windling 'Borderlands' books, but Grimjack took the setting to 11. The comic storylines are a mix of pulp noir, detective, sci-fi, fantasy, and general gonzo.

Grimjack (née John Gaunt) is a sword-for-hire within the City. He's a weathered and scarred veteran of the city's gladiatorial pits, police department, and secret police. When we meet him, he is typically at his table at the back of Munden's Bar, nursing a glass of whiskey, accompanied by Bob the Watchlizard.

And as any good noir lead, he has a passion for 'his' city, a certain sense of honor, and the ability to unleash violence in defense of either.

The writing, of course, has a certain cheesy pulp air to it: