Once And Future

We must unfortunately start this week's Gazetteer with the sad news that one of our writers, Rob Wieland, passed away unexpectedly last weekend, aged just 48. When I started work on the first issue of Wyrd Science back in 2020 Rob was one of the first people I spoke to about it. Straight away he got what we were trying to do and would go on to be a constant presence in the magazine, writing for every issue.

Rob was an editor's dream, widely knowledgeable, incisive and funny. From the most indie of titles through to the most mainstream, he could be relied upon to treat them all equally and with a genuine curiosity. Whenever I would start to plan a new issue I always knew that the half a dozen or so pages marked RW on the flatplan were in the safest of hands.

More than that though Rob helped to fundamentally shape the magazine. Whenever I've been asked to pick some features to sum up what we do I've inevitably turned to his interviews with Cole Wehrle, about the politics behind the boardgame Root, and April Kit-Walsh on Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Great features in their own right but more than that they reassured me in those early days that Wyrd Science made sense, that games were a useful lens for looking at the world around us.

For that, and so much else, I will be forever grateful.

Whether writing for us or the likes of EN World, Forbes or The Milwaukee Record, running games at conventions, hosting The Theatre of the Mind Players and, not least, as a game designer himself with credits on titles like Star Wars Saga Edition and Firefly alongside his own RPGs such as Save Game and Camelot Trigger, Rob was a tireless champion of tabletop games.

His loss will be deeply felt throughout the community but, more importantly, Rob was also a devoted husband and father and right now our thoughts go out to his young family. For those who may be able to spare a buck or two a GoFundMe campaign has been set up in his name to help support them through this time.

Honestly, I've gone back and forth a lot about leaving it there for this week. It feels more than a little odd to segue from that into hyping up lurid exploitation films and vintage roleplaying games but, like I said, Rob dedicated a large amount of his life to supporting and documenting games, films and our culture and I suspect he wouldn't want us stop now. So, on that note, I'll just say do look after yourselves and until next week, stay wyrd.

John x

Currently crowdfunding and worth a look...

Pendragon: Classic Edition

Widely hailed as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, Pendragon -Greg Stafford's game of knightly pursuits and courtly intrigue- is riding high in the saddle once more thanks to its well received 6th edition. In fact before you go any further why not go and read Rob's feature on the game from issue 6, which is now free to read and delves into why it means so much to so many.

Caught up?

Right, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the game's release Chaosium are producing a facsimile of its original box set. Complete with the first edition's equally acclaimed supplements such as Larry DiTillio's The Grey Knight and Stafford's own Pendragon Campaign, a large fold out map of Arthurian Britain, dice, character sheets, there's everything you need to start your own epic grail quest, just like it's 1985 again.

As I was musing on Bluesky the other day, it's just a shame these 'Classic' facsimile editions that Chaosium have been producing of late don't come with at least one character sheet covered in archaeological layers of graphite where stats, stories & glorious deeds have been recorded, erased & recommitted to paper time & again. One of the joys of buying old games on eBay is always when you find an old filled in character sheet, strangely melancholic time capsules of decades old adventures.

Still, I guess you can't have everything and for those of us with an annoying gap on our shelves this remains a great chance to get hold of one of tabletop games' all timers without having to break the bank buying an original copy. Now let's hope Chaosium have resolved the rights issues and got Stormbringer lined up for their next reissue...

Pendragon: Classic Edition on Kickstarter now until Nov 4

Back it now!

Cannibal Worlds

Cannibal Worlds is the latest book from French publisher Pulse, I suspect that I could simply state that it's a deep dive into the world of 1970s/80s Italian cannibal movies and leave it there. 95% of you will be like 'yeah, thanks but no thanks dude' no matter what I say, whilst the rest of you will have already backed it.

Still, even if to only try and justify buying it ourselves, let's get our teeth into why you might want to own a glossy coffee table book about films where, let's not sugarcoat this, the main draw was watching humans feast upon other humans, usually after having done innumerable other vile things.

Whilst generally consumed, in the UK at least, via 4th or 5th generation hooky VHS tapes (the poor quality only lending to their queasy verisimilitude) cannibal movies originally spun off from the Italian mondo movies of the 1960s, with the Cannibal Boom itself (as flesh eating aficionados like to call it) beginning with Umberto Lenzi's 1972 film Il Paese del Sesso Selvaggio.

The success of Lenzi's film started a craze for similarly themed titles which more often than not saw westerners head into the jungles of South America and South East Asia only to become guests of honour at some problematically presented native tribe's banquet. Nearly a decade on The Boom would reach its apotheosis with 1980's Cannibal Holocaust, a film whose release, apocryphally at least, saw director Rugero Deodato up before the beak accused of producing an actual snuff film.

Now, whilst most movies released as part of the Cannibal Boom were, let's be honest, low budget exploitative schlock in the best tradition of 42nd Street, there has been in recent years something of a reappraisal with the films variously cast as a response to Italy's Years of Lead, warnings against western hypocrisy, vehicles of anti-imperialist/colonial messages, a last dying gasp of alternative cinema and increasingly an influence on future generations of movie makers.

For this book then author and documentary film maker Eugenio Ercolani has spoken to dozens of those involved in the production of these films, including Lenzi and Deodato, alongside leading historians of Italian cinema in an attempt to put them in their historical context, dispel "the myths and legends that have inevitably flourished around these controversial films" and allow you to judge for yourself their place in the cinematic pantheon. Plenty to chew on then, you might say.

Cannibal Worlds, on Kickstarter now until Nov 2

Back it now!

Previously in The Gazetteer...

Art & System - Tim Hutchings heads up this new project from Central Michigan University to preserve tabletop game history. On BackerKit until October 30

DURF Expanded - Much like our waistline Emiel Boven's post-OSR dungeon delver DURF has vastly expanded since 2021 whilst losing none of its lightness of touch. On Kickstarter until November 2.

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

Roleplaying Games

++ In the new season of Play To Find Out Quinns tackles the legendary big white book, Jenna K. Moran's notorious Nobilis, and explores the "slow sadness of creeping towards death in a village that offers you very little when you always dreamed of more." Like they say, it's basically The Archers.

++ Seems like someone said something mean about licensed games and David Chapman wants to set the record straight. Honestly licensed games are an odd duck, clearly for many people (let's say certain indie game designers) they are a tawdry commercial stain on the scene, whilst for many more (let's say people who play games) they are a shortcut to what they most probably want to experience when they first start rolling dice.

The odd thing is, of course, that certainly back in the 1980s it was licensed games like WEG's Ghostbusters and Star Wars that did more than most to push the medium into interesting new directions. In an age of multi-million pound licensed game Kickstarters does that still run true? Sounds like the kind of thing we should do a feature on tbh.

Autocratik

Publishers of the forthcoming WILD RPG, and former publishers of comics such as “Missing” and “D’Adventures of Israeli: Consequences”

David F. Chapman

++ We mentioned Clayton from Explorers Design's Ennies judging debrief last week and the final, fourth, part went up this week. Dig in, it's good stuff!

++ An interesting post on the Indie Game Reading Club this week lamenting the current state of play in the RPG scene. Even if you disagree it's worth reading, and personally I think there's definitely some merit to it. Certainly -with one or two notable exceptions- I think outside of the more niche RPG circles we're probably in a time of consolidation and refinement right now rather outright innovation.

To be honest whether that's a bad thing is probably also up for debate. Whilst it's nice to indulge in the fantasy of a post-DnD scene where a thousand fishblades bloom we're perhaps better served, in the short term at least, with a handful of titles (your Motherships and Mork Borgs say, I believe other indie games not beginning with M and not OSR adjacent do exist) cementing their recent growth and creating more stable off ramps from Big Dragon for both gamers and designers alike.

++ Still, even whilst games like Mothership claw their way towards mid-league respectability that's not to say that innovations within aren't happening. Take for example OVER/UNDER that started running on Discord this week as part of this year's Mothership Month and which is already producing some incredibly WILD / RESULTS.

++ OVER/UNDER is the work of Sam Sorensen and that means I get to neatly segue into this interesting piece by Sandro over on Fail Forward that is a response to Sam's own, equally interesting, Doing A Cool Move essay from back in March. If you like to really get into the weeds of game design both are worth getting a brew on and settling down to read when you have time.

Boardgames

++ Over at Skeleton Code Machine they're digging into Amabel Holland's The Field of the Cloth of Gold and looking at a game that embraces its 'feels bad' moments.

++ “To me, the fun in Monopoly isn’t really in playing it.” Ha, no shit buddy

++ Another Warhammer Quest leak, as this point you'd think it was all part of a well thought out marketing plan. Anyway, eurgh, look at this lad... I have a mighty need and one that I suspect won't be sated by Games Workshop's PR department.

Wargames

++ Over at Wargamer Timothy Linward scratches his head pondering turning circles and other such things as Warhammer 40K's current, tenth, edition enters its twilight years.

++ This one went up in March but I only stumbled across it this week so here it is, anyway Graham McNeill leads the uninitiated into the literary side of the grim dark future of Warhammer 40K and touches on the relationship between design studio and publishing division and the importance of hope in a universe like Warhammer's in this enjoyably in-depth interview on a site where you might not normally expect to find talk of space marines...

++ Frustratingly I've yet to properly get Voidfighter to the table, what with a magazine to sell and all that but I'm going to try and change that this weekend. In the meantime Blood & Spectacles run the rule over Casey Garske's new spaceship wargame.

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

++ Next week sees the DVD, BluRay and streaming release of Strange Journey: The Story of Rocky Horror. Directed by Linus O'Brien, son of the cult classic's creator (and Crystal Maze presenter) Richard O'Brien, it follows its journey from stage to screen, its initial failure, relaunch on the Midnight Movie circuit and subsequent global success and continued relevance which sees the film continue to pack out raucous late night showings to this day.

++ Interesting short piece on the myriad problems the GOG platform has faced in their mission to preserve older video games.

++ It's not just games that are the subject of frantic preservation, and celluloid treasure hunters may be close to tracking down another long lost sci-fi relic...

++ The Galaxy's Greatest Comic 2000AD have teamed up with ThorpyFX for a range of guitar pedals in Judge Dredd (British flavour overdrive), Judge Death (American style distortion) and Rogue Trooper (muff style fuzz) flavours... Have to say I would not be mad were someone to send us these to test...

++ Near namesakes Weird Walk are hosting another Samhain Ritual event in London on October 28th with Daisy Rickman, Samana, Lucy Gooch, Tree Carr + The Belles of London. Wish I could be there, though probably not enough to move back to the UK.

++ hmmm, and as if that wasn't enough to at least contemplate returning to mud island, The British Library are hosting another Tales Of The Weird Festival, on the 1st and 2nd of November, with appearances from the likes of Andrzej Sapkowski, Kim Newman, Iain Sinclair, Emma Glass, Lisa Tuttle and many more.

For the uninitiated the British Library have been publishing the Tales of the Weird books for a couple of years now, each month brings a new treasure trove of supernatural, gothic and horror short stories based around a particular eerie theme, which are well worth subscribing too if that's your spooky bag.

++ AI, the gift that keeps on taking...

++ Look, I'll admit I'm a sicko for glacially paced 1970s BBC documentaries at the best of times, but one about Ghost Hunters? YES!!!

++ An interesting (well I thought so) look back at the evolution of EGM magazine as it rode the tail end of print's heyday and the arrival of the despoiling force that is the internet.

We've featured the stunning music of Julianna Barwick in this space before, and with good reason - she's amazing - and this week she announced a new album, recorded with Mary Lattimore, Tragic Magic will be released in January. Going by this live performance of Melted Moon (which features on the album) it's going to be something special, soft music for hard times.

Pendragon: Classic Edition

Cannibal Worlds

Roleplaying Games

Boardgames

Wargames

Made it this far, you obviously like reading, why not buy a magazine and do it in style...