In defiance of the prevailing financial gloom wrought upon my beloved country by Jonah McDoom and his caterpillar-balancing sock puppet I have recently been stimulating the toys, games and trinkets part of the international economy. As a result of point-&-click witchcraft (although the chain of cause and effect is tenuous at best) more stuff has manifested from the boundless tat bazaars of the electroweb:
- Labyrinth Lord, Goblinoid Games pretty purple edition
(capsule review: "Mmmmmmmmm") - Northwest of Earth by C. L. Moore, Paizo Planet Stories edition
(capsule review: the woman had issues with women) - The Right Hand of Doom and other stories of Soloman Kane by R. E. Howard, Wordsworth Editions
(capsule review: grim, dark, dark, spooky, grim. Also, grim) - Also received - and faster than I would have thought possible given that the author has to swedge to the Post Office through neck-high snowdrifts and swarms of ravening blood-crazed Moomins - Green Devil Face #1 + #2 by James E. Raggi 4th and others
(capsule review: These are delicious, and fill my cold black DM's heart with an infernal glee)
In other news: The first quadrant of Level 1 of the Vaults is just about complete, as is an accompanying sub-level I've dubbed Zeno's Dollhouse. The former has been something of a slog, with re-writes, re-mappings, tantrums and tears before bedtime, the whole shebang. In fact there's probably a whole blog post worth of drama in there... The latter (annoyingly) popped into place fully formed and sat there looking smug at me.
Both chunks of murderous tunnelised doom use the already famous One Page Dungeon template (no, I shaln't be entering the competition: I have quite enough trouble with my own dungeon thanks), said template being liberally sprinkled with unoriginal ideas nabbed from here, there and everywhere. All I have to do is work out how to make a decent-looking map ("I am teh suk"), and onto orbitfiles they'll go for perusal and mockery.
More later.
Good stuff. Planning to finally pick up Carcosa myself, and even though I've got both Moldvay/Cook and Mentzer Basic the Labyrinth Lord softcover is sore tempting.
ReplyDeleteThose collected Moomin comics are lovely. In strange moments I wonder if there's an RPG setting there...
@Max: Carcosa is cheap at twice the price. All controversy aside Geoffrey McKinley (He Who Speaketh Only In The Third Person) did some excellent work there. There's evocative extra-virgin game-fodder on almost every page.
ReplyDeleteI've honestly no idea how much utility Labyrinth Lord will have for you if you already have Moldvay/Cook. LL is a fine piece of work: well laid-out, organisation excellent, minimal typos, thematically appropriate art.
Dan Proctor did good.
The best benefit of LL, for me, is that I can play Moldvay/Cook with people who might have trouble finding Moldvay/Cook.
ReplyDeleteNorthwest of Earth by C. L. Moore, Paizo Planet Stories edition
(capsule review: the woman had issues with women)
This is the first time I've heard anything like that. Now you've got me curious. Can you expound briefly on this?
@Trollsmyth: women are either objectified or monstrous in these stories. No exceptions.
ReplyDeleteThe succession of succubi, lamia, polymorphic sirens and haemovore lotus-eaters is broken only by pliant odalisques selectively bred for beauty "...which drives out intelligence, wit or any other positive quality".
It might not be rampant galloping misogyny on a par with Dave Sim; but there's definitely a sense of woman as dangerous and incomprehensible other in these stories that goes above and beyond the call of pulp fanservice duty.