Creation Myths

Hello, and happy Friday.

I'm currently reading Steve Dee's Worldbuilding For Game Designers. Spoiler for any possible future review but it's great, one of those books that sets your mind on fire and as much as you want to plough through it as quickly as possible keeps sending you off on dozens of different tangents.

Thanks to those tangents I'm only half a dozen chapters in right now but one of the things it has done well so far is reinforce just how much the division between setting and system is, or should be, a false dichotomy. As Dee makes abundantly clear worldbuilding, lore, all the stuff that might often be bracketed as 'fluff' exists to heighten the game experience, not just in the sense of having interesting stuff to explore or interact with but by working hand in hand with game mechanics to make them 'as intuitive as possible.'

Now, I realise that's not exactly revelatory but Dee communicates his ideas in such a way that even concepts you take for granted feel fresh again. To get the most out of it I've dug up an old pre-Wyrd Science project of mine (an RPG of occult detection and derring-do set in Elizabethan England, and yes, I know that's been done to death) which I'm running through the exercises that end each chapter. I have to say it already feels more like a world I'd want to game in than what it actually was, the remnants of a failed novel, so a tip of my feathered hat there to Mr Dee*.

Anyway, more on the book - and who knows maybe even that old game - at a later date but I'd love to hear about some of your favourite examples of worldbuilding, especially where it works hand in glove with a game's system, as this is definitely something I plan to explore in a future issue of the magazine.

But it is late on a Friday so for now though I'll leave you to read on about Shannon Appelcline's new project, exploring the creation and development of not just one but several fantasy worlds, and gorge yourself on a smorgasbord of great stuff we've found around the web that should keep you unbored all weekend.

Till next time,

John x

*Speaking of Mr Dees, going through my notes reminded me of one of my favourite Elizabethan facts (yes I have those) that John Dee, the Queen's occultist, signed his secret messages as 007. That feels like the kind of setting background you'd almost feel too embarrassed to include (though I did and I wasn't).

Designers & Dragons: Origins

It's often been said (well, by me at least) that the tabletop games industry has the institutional memory of a concussed goldfish. Now, whilst I don't expect that to change any time soon we must salute those such as Jon Peterson, Ben Riggs and Shannon Appelcline who are putting in a solid shift at the moment, sifting through what evidence is available to provide us with a more complete picture of RPG history.

Shannon Appelcline's Designers & Dragons books are an especially essential tool for anyone who likes to pretend that they know what they're talking about and you will not be surprised to learn that they're rarely far from my desk. With that in mind I was delighted to hear he'd returned to the series with Designers & Dragons: Origins, a mammoth undertaking to catalogue and document "each and every product released by TSR for OD&D, AD&D 1e, and Basic D&D."

Presented in a four volume series, Origins takes us from 1971 right up to 1995, covering everything from Chainmail to the likes of Mystara (and of course *clown car honking* bankruptcy) in wonderful detail. All in all it looks like another invaluable resource for us sickos who like to spend our one precious go at life obsessing over this kind of thing.

You don't even need to take our word for it as there's a 57 page preview available here where you can see how an entry for something such as 1981's Fiend Folio, includes not just an idea of what they put in the book, but its place in D&D's history. Here for example Shannon introduces the British contribution to the game, the sometimes friendly, sometimes fraught relationship between TSR and Games Workshop and what that meant for both companies futures. Like we said an essential tool.

Saying that, I would note that having forensically scanned the contents page I did notice there was no entry for the likes of 1984's Dungeons & Dragons power tricycle, so maybe we could convince both Shannon & Evil Hat to green light a 5th volume at some point covering all the ridiculous toys, colouring-in books and View Master reels that have been produced for this super-serious grown up game over the years, otherwise I'll just have to do it myself.

Anyway, look, I'm not even going to vaguely pretend to be impartial here Shannon has written several articles for us in the past and is in fact working on one right now, so caveat emptor and all that. Though I would say the fact that I regularly, and indeed happily, hand out several pages of the magazine and a chunk of cash (though not enough, sorry) to him is probably the best endorsement for this new project that I could hope to offer.

Find it on Backerkit until November 21.

Previously in The Gazetteer...

The Spectral Vision of Gothic Romance - art curator Thomas Negovan's Century Guild presents an exploration of witchcraft and the occult through"vintage paperback cover art" - On Kickstarter until Nov 14.

Loin du Feu - A gorgeous looking FATE based RPG set in a fairy tale France, that sees 4 artist-writer teams combine to each tackle a different region and period - On Kickstarter until Dec 2

Islands of Weirdhope - It's the end of the world as we know and I feel fine. Set sail with David Blandy and Daniel Locke as they return to the world of their ECO MOFOS RPG, where the apocalypse happened and things got weird but not necessarily any worse, and explore its oceans in search of plunder and peace - on Backerkit now until Dec 3

All the gaming stuff that's kept us staring into the black mirror this week...

Roleplaying Games

If you enjoyed Dr Malcolm Craig's essay in our latest issue on what studying Cold War RPGs can tell us about the era then you're in luck as his article in the Journal of American Studies looking in more detail at Twilight 2000 is now online and free to read.

"John, why do you keep linking to Blog of Forlorn Encystment posts?"

Because they never miss, that's why. Now, go read this round up of the implied setting of AD&D's disease ridden settlements in all their grisly, animal (both mundane and not) cruelty, threat filled glory.

The Gigantic Spider is back with another very useful breakdown of recent RPG crowdfunding results.

Always interesting to see our strange hobby break containment and make an appearance in the big boy press, usually it's not for any particular good reason but still...

We mentioned last week that Clayton from Explorers Design and Ryan from The Weekly Scroll were going to be having a chat about promoting yourself as a game designer and lo and behold here it is preserved for years to come. Have to say I agree with roughly 90% of what they say, couple of things I'd mildly push back on but you could do a lot worse than take some notes (and yes I'm looking at companies that actually employ PR people here...).

Wargames

Let's be honest there was one clear winner from last week's big Warhammer reveals and it was the little crow dude with his orb. Saying that my need to check out Warhammer Quest Darkwater has only intensified, Games Workshop if you're reading this I take back any mean things we may have said in the past, please send us a copy for an impartial review.

Skelton Code Machine - who are well worth keeping up with if you lie insightful posts on game design are about to kick off a Skirmish games week, help steer them in the right direction here...

And talking of skirmish game design, Jordan interviews ex GW staffer (and now YouTuber) Sam Pearson about his work on games such as Warcry and the new Spearhead variant of Age of Sigmar.

Boardgames

For reasons that escape me we haven't linked to a Dan Thurot article for more than a week, so lets quickly rectify that now...

Kickstarter workers have ended their strike having secured many of their goals. Power to the workers, though if any of our writers are reading this don't get any ideas.

Art, music, books, films, tv, weird shit, just all the other stuff we like...

Any one got a spare half a million? Next month Christie's Groundbreakers: Icons of our Time auction sees two items very relevant to our interests going under the, errr, hammer. J.R.R. Tolkien's desk (est. £50-80K) and John Blanche's original Harry the Hammer artwork which graced the 1st edition of Warhammer (set. £300-400K !!! which much as we love both John and Warhammer seems like a remarkable valuation). Anyway maybe we could organise a whip round?

Gore Verbinski's new film Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die about a man travelling from the future to try and stop an AI apocalypse looks gloriously nuts. In cinemas early next year! (and just a reminder that for more incisive commentary of films than that you really should check out Certified Forgotten).

Black Lodge Press, makers of some of our favourite prints, tees and the like "inspired by DIY queer culture, working class history and anarchy" are back after a brief hiatus with a whole load of brand new gear to wrap yourselves in.

Speaking of wrapping yourself up, the wonderful artist/emcee Kid Acne just put some new stuff up on his store today including this rather natty scarf that we had to insta-buy.

Meanwhile in other apparel related news, the good folk at Hellebore -or at least one of their t-shirts- have caused quite a stir. Seriously if anyone gets booted out of like a Cliff Richard concert for wearing a Wyrd Science tee please let us know, we could do with some mainstream media coverage.

My ongoing mission to own ALL THE MAGAZINES led me down under this week where art mag No Cure has just returned after a 5 year break. Straight in the bag it went, have to say it looks incredible and especially if you go for the t-shirt bundle, even when you factor in the shipping from Australia it's a -relatively- good deal. Well worth scoping out anyway.

An absolutely wild story about the emergence of a spiral obsessed AI driven 'cult' in Rolling Stone this week that is well worth reading, despairing about and then adapting to the cyberpunk RPG of your choice.

Something soothing to play us into the weekend. David Harks, was one of the artists I was managing when Covid reared its spiky head, put my music industry career out of its misery and started me on this wyrd path. A lovely soul who makes dreamily psychedelic electronic pop, David's racked up tens of millions of plays of his tracks whilst the big labels have stubbornly refused to ply him with the money and resources he 100% deserves.

Anyway, he has a new self released EP out today that I'm especially happy to see features this beautiful track that I've been waiting to see released for over 6 years now, a track which back in the day I'd no doubt have dipped my pen in purple ink to describe as possessing a numinous quality or radiating a gauzy ethereal beauty. Soft music for hard times.

Well, you made it this far, you obviously like something that we do. Why not buy a magazine and enjoy tens of thousands more words, many in the right order, from us...