Punch drunk

"Fifteen years since I had to take out a Green Beret..." Oh, just fuck right off, Frank Miller. Why stop there? How about: "It's been fifteen years since I had to take out a Terminator" or "It's been fifteen years since I had to take out a Chitauri attack fleet"?

In Batman: Year One we've been wondering up till that point how little Jim Gordon is going to deal with Flass and the other corrupt cops in the Gotham police department. He'll have to be wily and determined. Seek out some allies with mutual interests. Get leverage over his enemies, maybe dig the dirt on them. Dissemble so that they don't suspect what he's up to. Judge who he can trust and who he can get on his side.

But no, none of that happens, because it would call for some very smart plotting. Instead let's have him be the very pinnacle of ex-special forces. Then he can just beat up Flass and that'll solve everything.

Same for Alfred the butler, who used to be an interesting contrast with his employer, like C-3PO and Luke, but has morphed into the young Bruce Wayne's sensei. Nowadays Galadriel has to be Hit Girl and Dalby in The Ipcress File is a Bond-level killer. Talking of Bond, M now has to have a background in the SAS (probably he joined the regiment at the same time as Alfred Pennyworth). Even Wednesday Addams, who should be so terrifyingly cool that she never needs to resort to combat, now has to be a martial arts whizz.

Making every supporting character ex-SAS or a SEAL is the same mentality that bungs all of Arthur Conan Doyle’s characters into one universe and expects a round of applause. It's the colour-by-numbers approach to imagination. When writers can’t think of clever ways for their heroes to deal with the problems they’ve given them, they use the cop-out that they are super-tough brawlers – as if that ever really solved anything. 

As an antidote to all this, look instead at Lizzie Bennet tackling Catherine de Bourgh with just a keen mind and moral courage. Or reflect on why Odysseus is a more interesting adventure hero because he overcomes problems with his wits rather than brute strength. That's why I liked The Penguin TV show. Oz Cobb is tough, but not Steve Rogers tough. He's only one man in a ruthless criminal world where there are plenty of stronger and faster adversaries. Outnumbered and despised, an outsider among Gotham's established crime families, faced with an ever-changing crisis where plans are constantly going awry, he has to be cunning and think on his feet.

It's a storytelling lesson I learned at the age of seven watching Goldfinger. Back in those early days 007 wasn't harder than a UFC champion. He was just ultra-resourceful. And when he takes out Oddjob, that was the moment that shows what it takes to tell a good story.

The glories of Orb

You may not have noticed, but the Way of the Tiger gamebooks recently got a mini-makeover. All six of the original books are now available in ebook format as well as in paperback, and there's a new series page on Amazon.

What's unique about the Way of the Tiger books is the range of gameplay styles covered. In the early books you're a stealthy assassin. Then you have to conquer a kingdom -- but not just that, in the next book you have govern it. Enemy city-states move against you, making the next book a complete wargame, firstly of strategic choices as you manoeuvre to bring your adversaries to battle, then a contest of nerve and tactics as you try to break them once and for all. The last of the original series circled back to solo adventuring, but this time in the form of classic dungeon delving.

The dungeoneering made sense because the glittering centrepiece of the series is the world of Orb, Mark Smith's setting for the D&D campaign he ran for his friends at school. There were no ninja in Orb in those days, just classic sword-&-sorcery tropes. Many of the NPCs who pop up in the books were player-characters in Mark's campaign, which was still getting talked about (and occasionally run) when I met him at college the following year. I remember holding the Book of the Gods of Orb, a school exercise book in which he'd detailed all the temples and cults of Orb. There were other books too, and more material got added as the campaign progressed over the years. We played long-term in those days, not just a dozen sessions and on to the next thing. Orb was a genuine epic loved by everyone who was privileged enough to play in it.

The good news is that you can get a taste of that brilliance by playing the gamebooks that Jamie Thomson wrote with Mark in the 1980s. And if the downbeat ending of Book 6 bothers you, there's a very good sequel by David Walters (Redeemer) that lets you get Avenger out of that web.

Fellow travellers in the Vulcanverse

As you explore the Vulcanverse you can acquire various companions to accompany you on your quests. The companion you travel with can make a big difference to events at a location. They not only give advice or help, they sometimes become part of the story themselves. You can only have one companion at a time, so it’s a decision that can fundamentally change what you experience in the game.

I’m thinking of producing a series of Vulcanverse guides for the players who are put off by the thought of exploring without some hints. The Companions Guide would be the first, featuring overviews like this.

Loutro

You first meet Loutro at a dilapidated lakeside shrine to Aphrodite in the south-east of the land of Notus. Though Loutro respects the goddess of love, he reveals himself to be the last initiate of Tethys, the almost-forgotten goddess of rivers.

Loutro is one of your most loyal companions, becoming a reliable and steadfast friend and maybe even more than that. But despite your relationship he never loses sight of his main goal, which is to pass on his religious training to you. If you walk with him along the course of the Great River, which is now just a dried-up gully across the desert, he instructs you in stages until finally you earn the title Initiate of the Tethysian Mysteries.

Devoted as he is to you, Loutro isn’t going to hang around once his goal has been achieved, so if you want to experience some of the other regions of the Vulcanverse in his company you need to resist his urging to undertake that pilgrimage along the river bed. Once he leaves you he’ll never be available as a companion again, though you might well meet him in the course of later adventures. In fact, it’s during one of those later encounters that he gives you the means to acquire another of your companions.

Once you know the secrets of the river goddess’s cult as an Initiate of the Tethysian Mysteries, you can perform a ritual that will radically and permanently change the landscape of Notus and have ongoing effects throughout the whole Vulcanverse. The ritual is one of the three labours of Notus that must be completed to open up the main storyline in book 5, so you’ll want to get to it eventually, but again there’s no need to rush things. Some locations will no longer be accessible after the ritual and others will open up. You might want to explore Notus for a while longer first – in particular the mines just north of the Iskandrian delta.

When you do get around to the ritual, you're going to need three sacred items: a conch horn, a green pearl, and a baby's rattle. As for where you can find those, that's a subject for another guide.

The cure for our ills?

Regular readers will already know I'm an evangelist for AI. And, yes, I'm aware there are risks, as with any new technology, but we are going to keep rubbing lamps and letting genies out. We just have to be careful how we deal with them. When he was setting up DeepMind, Sir Demis Hassabis was fond of propounding the vision: "Solve intelligence. Use intelligence to solve everything else." By everything he meant curing disease, solving the problem of controlled fusion, and all the other things that could make life on Earth a utopia.

Perhaps you are cynical about experts and/or multi-millionaires, but don't make the mistake of dismissing every member of a group on account of some bad apples. I know Demis personally (I used to work for him) and I assure you that he is motivated by a genuine vision of a better future. His delight in the workings of the universe, his ever-youthful curiosity, his humour, his intelligence, and his focus are the qualities that I think show human beings at their very best. For such men and women, the human adventure is just beginning.

I mention all this because there is a biography of Demis Hassabis just out. That's The Infinity Machine: Demis Hassabis, DeepMind, and the Quest for Superintelligence by Sebastian Mallaby. Hassabis is likely to be admired by future generations as a pioneer of a new era -- long after the likes of Musk and Trump are forgotten -- and, though I think the key to AGI might lie more in the work of Yann LeCun, and though I believe we should celebrate discoveries, not discoverers, anyone who is interested in the lives of those who shape history should take a look.

There is a depressing note. (It's the 2020s, so how could there not be?) Recently Demis seems to be cooling on the grand vision. “I’ve satiated that scientific desire for the moment…I’ve always been fine either way,” he says, justifying the shift in emphasis from AGI research to the LLMs that are where the money is now. It figures that Google isn't interested in idealistic research; it just wants commercial product. If it were me, I'd walk away. Demis is probably reasoning that maybe he can do more good with 1% of Google's focus than with 100% of the resources of an obscure research lab. Such compromises with the inevitable never work out. You never even get that 1%. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

AGI, superintelligence, and the keys to a utopian future are all achievable in theory. Of that I'm almost certain. But whether the societies and institutions humans have created will ever allow us to reach that goal remains an open question. The fault is not in our science but in ourselves.

Things Man Was Not Meant To Know

After the unveiling of the Dagon Warriors rules and the recent investigative scenario*, Teófilo Hurtado asked me how we would represent characters like Arthur Jermyn. The staple protagonist of a Lovecraftian story is not, after all, a two-fisted bruiser or a swami with mind control, simply a fellow of ordinary prowess and sometimes with an academic bent. OK, then...

The Scholar

Scholars are learned investigators and antiquarians who delve into forbidden knowledge and ancient mysteries. Unlike other professions that rely on physical prowess or psychic powers, Scholars use their extensive education and research skills to overcome supernatural threats. Their deep study of esoteric lore has granted them unusual resistance to mental intrusion, but at the cost of combat effectiveness.

Minimum Requirements: Intelligence 12+, Psychic Talent 9+

Starting Stats:

• Health Points: 1d6+4
• Attack 11, Defense 5
• Psychic Attack 0, Psychic Defense 6 (enhanced mental resistance)
• Evasion 3
• Stealth 13, Perception 7

Progression:

• Attack/Defense: +1 at 4th rank, then +1 at 7th, 10th, etc.
• Health Points: +1 at 2nd, 4th, 6th, etc.
• Psychic Defense: +1 each rank, with additional +1 at 4^th, 7th and 10th ranks
• Evasion: +1 at 5th, then +1 at 9th rank
• Stealth: +1 at 4th, then +1 at 7th, then +1 at 10^th
• Perception: +1 per rank

Special Abilities

1st Rank Abilities:

• Linguistic Analysis: Can attempt to decipher unknown languages, codes, and ancient inscriptions. At 1^st to 3^rd rank the Scholar will always be able to translate at least one important phrase. At higher ranks they can additionally interpret a percentage of the text equal to 1d10x their rank, though this usually takes a few hours.
• Historical Research: Exceptional knowledge of historical events, antiquities, and academic sources
• Psychic Resilience: Starting Psychic Defense of 6 instead of the normal 5

Higher Rank Abilities:

4th Rank: Academic Network - Can locate rare books, expert consultants, and obscure information through academic contacts.

6th Rank: Rapid Analysis - Can quickly assess supernatural threats and identify weaknesses through cross-referencing folklore and historical accounts.

8th Rank: Theoretical Construction - Can design and (given sufficient time and resources) build devices based on historical accounts and mythological descriptions. Examples include Eilmer's wings, Greek fire, siege engines from ancient texts, or protective talismans based on folklore.

10th Rank: Masterwork Construction - Can create sophisticated devices combining multiple historical techniques, such as mechanical calculators (such as the Antikythera mechanism), advanced Babylonian optics, or complex timing mechanisms using ancient mathematics and astronomy. (Cf gadgeteers in GURPS 4e.)

Scholar Skills

Scholars gain expertise in the following areas as they advance, beginning at journeyman level and becoming fully proficient by 5th rank:

• Languages: All known ancient and modern languages (Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, etc.)
• Archaeology: Understanding of ancient civilizations and their technologies
• Occult Theory: Academic knowledge of supposedly supernatural phenomena (without the ability to practice it)
• Research: Exceptional ability to find information in libraries, archives, and academic institutions

Combat Limitations

Scholars’ strength lies in preparation, research, and the construction of useful devices rather than direct confrontation.

What's Real and Make-believe?

The premise of the game is that extraterrestrial civilizations and other-dimensional entities first visited the Earth hundreds of thousands of years ago. Some of these creatures were worshipped as gods by primitive man. Over the millennia, the few definite facts have been distorted, misreported and added to until the field of “mythos lore” today bears little resemblance to reality. Those who imagine themselves to be perpetuating the ancient worship are like modern druids fancying they are continuing traditions from before the Roman conquest by mustering at the far more ancient site of Stonehenge. The prayers that cultists offer to Cthulhu are unheard, if indeed Cthulhu even exists as a single being, and would not be answered in any case.

That doesn’t mean that study of the Cthulhu mythos is not worthwhile. Consider Bible studies. Knowledge of the Old Testament will not tell you anything about the history of the universe, or even just the solar system, or provide useful insight into medicine, hygiene, nutrition or ethics, but nevertheless it is a valid academic subject. Similarly, Cthulhu mythos lore is largely a study of the many fabrications made over the centuries, the truth often being unknowable, but it is valuable for the Scholar to know about those beliefs because the actions of cultists who venerate Cthulhu and other such beings are predicated on such beliefs being true.

Design Notes

The Scholar's enhanced Psychic Defense progression provides significant protection against the mental attacks common in Cthulhu Mythos scenarios. Their construction abilities offer unique problem-solving options that complement rather than replace the combat abilities of other professions. At higher ranks, a Scholar might construct a collapsible glider, a defensive smoke bomb, or even a primitive spacesuit—all potentially invaluable tools for 1920s investigators facing supernatural threats.

Stats for an Average Scholar

*For traditionalists, here is a downloadable version of the "Abnormal Growths" scenario with Call of Cthulhu stats.

X marks the spot

Recently I've been working with Paweł Dziemski, co-author of Whispers Beyond The Stars, on an app version of my 1990s Tudor pirates gamebook Down Among the Dead Men. 

Paweł said it would be nice to have background images appearing behind the text panels that would indicate the prevailing location. So when you're escaping across the ocean in an open boat at the start, you get an image that distills the atmosphere of desperation and precarious survival. Later, there are images for the islands you might stop off at, and later still for the ports you stop off at and the various ships you might sail aboard.

Great idea. The snag was that I needed to find which sections correspond to which locations, which is not easy given that the whole adventure is randomized. So it was off to the loft to search through stacks of boxes until I found the original flowchart. (Yes, I still have it. What do you mean, hoarding? It was just as well I hung onto it these thirty years as it turns out.) Along with the flowchart I found the sketch above, the very genesis of the adventure.

I only realized after digging out the flowchart (written out on sheets of paper, incidentally -- no Twine in those days) that I didn't need it after all. I could just feed the book to NotebookLM and ask questions like, "Give me the section numbers for when the player leaves Port Leshand". Although Claude is my main AI assistant/coworker, producing helpful aids like the updated flowchart below, I'm continually impressed by what NotebookLM can do. It's moved far beyond simply being an intelligent index, which was how I first encountered it, and I can now set it to doing logic markup or helping me navigate old gamebooks.

My evangelism for AI aside, the Down Among the Dead Men app was coded the old-fashioned way (by Paweł) and you can get it from the Storm Weavers online shop in both English and Polish. I particularly like the atmospheric sound effects that Paweł has added. The creak of timbers, the cry of gulls, the lapping of waves, all add immeasurably to the sense of immersion. I know that most gamebook readers prefer a physical book, but this digital version is a lot more than just the text on a screen. If you try it out, let us know what you think.

Blow the man down

Thirty-five years after it was first published, my pirates-and-sorcery gamebook Down Among The Dead Men is rising from the deeps as an app. More on that tomorrow.