It was a pleasure and a privilege to be invited by Ralph Lovegrove onto his Fictoplasm podcast recently. Normally the structure of an episode involves Ralph reviewing a novel and then considering how it might inspire roleplaying games. Particularly recommended: Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mythago Wood, The Tremor of Forgery, The Chronicles of Prydain, Kill the Dead, The Eclipse of the Century, Lyonesse, and Elric of Melnibone. Talking of that last one, Ralph is currently embarking on a marathon read-though of Moorcock classics, so stay tuned.
A previous guest on the Fictoplasm podcast was my wife Roz Morris so to balance things out I guess Ralph just had to ask me. Tune in here for our long discussion which takes in Brexit (鎖国), Tetsubo (鉄棒), my planned Sparta RPG (Λ), Mirabilis (☄), Frankenstein (🧠), Tirikelu (₸), and of course Jewelspider (💎🕷 or 宝石クモ, take your pick). We also talk about politics, gamebook design, the Congo, Nazis, Sagas of the Icelanders, and roleplaying in soon-to-be-sunken lands from Abraxas to Lyonesse but I've got no kanji or other symbols for those.
Jamie mentioned after listening to the podcast that I came across a bit like Tony Blair at times. Apparently he meant because of my vocal inflection rather than my politics. I suggested we might do a regular Fabled Lands podcast. (Jamie would be the Gordon Brown of the partnership, presumably.) So far I haven't been able to convince him, but maybe if there's enough demand...
Vote one for the Dave and Jamie podcast. I really enjoyed the session the pair of you did (with Paul Mason? Maybe?) at the German gamebook con Manticon was it?
ReplyDeleteYes indeed, Jamie, Paul and I did two talks at Manticon. One on RPGs:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUgyvVQFGBc&feature=emb_logo
and the other on gamebooks:
https://fabledlands.blogspot.com/2019/01/vortrag-uber-spielbucher.html
And talking of the devil, I have to say I appreciated the ideographic names for the games (though the katakana for spider was a cop-out: it should be 宝石蜘蛛).
ReplyDelete鎖国 (sakoku: the period of enforced isolation in Japan until it was prised open by those scary-looking black ships in the picture) was particularly inspired for Brexit!
I must admit I could feel the inspiration flagging as I got to Jewelspider. It should have been in runes really, but they're not so versatile.
DeleteMorris, tell that vile polyp Thomson he doesn't get a choice in the matter, I command it! - The Dark Lord
ReplyDeleteErm, sorry about that, Dave. I've just been reading it to my son and got a bit carried away!
You might have hit on just the way to convince him, Andy. Threats and commands, that's the ticket!
DeleteIf you'd seen my son's Mwa ha hah earlier, Dave, this would be a done deal already.
DeleteFantastic Mr Fox, forget about it! That's going in the bin Thomson, unless you sign up!
Having questioned its suitability for a five year old after the first chapter, my wife is now chucking along as much as my son.
DeleteFabled Island Books, I like that.
If you end up raising a future dark lord, Andy, don't expect Jamie to accept any responsibility. I mentioned what happened when he borrowed my Hellblazer comics, didn't I?
DeleteThat award's going in the bin and chuckling not chucking. I need to start using that preview button!
DeleteFor the last few years, anything my son's not wanted to do, no matter how trivial, he'll shout "Never!" at the top of his voice. So the signs were there!
No, you've not mentioned Hellblazer before, Dave. I had to look them up as not heard of them before. Do tell?
Oh, on the subject of proofreading, I've finished John Whitbourn's short stories. I've not got a superlative to describe how good they are. I've just started on The Two Confessions. I'm saving the Downs-lord books until my holiday next month.
Sorry to sound like a stuck record, Dave. The Two Confessions is also excellent.
DeleteJust a point of clarity on my post above. I've made it sound like I proof read Altered Englands (I wish!). It was just in reference to one of my favourite stories in the book, which was about an obnoxious proofreader. My enthusiasm and clumsy use of language conspiring against me again! I've put a review on Amazon for anyone interested. As short stories go, I really do rate them alongside those of Stephen King, Richard Matheson and Roald Dahl. I'll shut up now before I dig my stuck record hole any deeper!
No worries, Andy -- actually, I didn't even read it that way, though I am curious about the story you mention. Most writers are grateful for a diligent proofreader, so maybe JAW had one who dropped the ball? I'll have to ask him.
DeleteMeanwhile, what did you think of the cover of That Devil Wilkes? It was Roz's idea ("make it sort of Terry Gilliam style") but I added a dash of Ralph Steadman and did the heavy lifting. No risk of a hernia when you do that with artwork!
Thanks, Dave. Given I'd been giving such glowing recommendations to John's works, I didn't want your readers thinking I was in any way biased. I probably think these things through too much! Ironically my wife is a proofreader, so I may get her to vet my posts in future!
DeleteI must admit That Devil Wilkes was the one piece of John's work I hadn't picked up, as there wasn't a hard copy available at the time. I see I can now rectify that, thanks. Very snazzy cover, I like it. I also like The Man In The Hill cover, as my son called it. Triffids was also excellent. Murky, disturbing and atmospheric. Have you done all the covers, out of interest?
The podcast was very enjoyable by the way. Each subject worthy of it's own session. (Spoiler Alert) We're going to get a Frankenstein gamebook then? Hurray! I notice you wrote it at a similar time to John's Frankenstein's Legions. Is that co-incidence, or did you challenge each other to who could write the best story, as a nod to the backstory of the source material?! I see Roz has also done a Fictoplasm podcast, so I'll check that out too.
You didn't finish off your Jamie story by the way, if you'd care to finish it off? Or is there something obvious I'm missing regarding Hellblazer and I'm just being thick?!
I have done all John's covers since 2012 apart from The Two Confessions, Andy, and Frankenstein's Legions is the only one I'm really ashamed of. I keep meaning to go back and try again, as I must have learned a little since then... surely!
DeleteI asked John to write Frankenstein's Legions, though it ended up nothing like the roleplaying game or the comic that I'd worked on at various times. My version followed Mary Shelley's story in actually bringing the monsters to life, whereas John made them zombies. But zombie fiction is what sells, so he was probably right to do that.
As for the Hellblazer story, I was hoping Jamie would 'fess up rather than make me publicly shame him. Not that he'd be ashamed. I could save it for a blog post in which Jamie and I list all the bad things the other one has done over the years.
The Man in the Hill book is how John and I now refer to AE btw -- perfect description of it, I'd say.
I suppose not having read Frankenstein's Legions yet, Dave, I shouldn't judge the cover. However, it's the only one I couldn't hazard a guess at what it may be conveying. That said, far superior to what I'm capable of, so I won't throw a stone in a glass house. As you didn't do The Two Confessions cover, I can't ask you why Ozzy Osbourne is on it?!
DeleteI said to my son this morning that the man who did the cover for The Man in the Hill book and the man who wrote it, now call it that too, what do you think to that? He beamed a big smile and said, yeah, that's pretty good! Then he grabbed his cuddly toy tiger by the tail and whacked me round the head with it. Being slightly concussed, I didn't think to ask whether the smile was for the book comment or the tiger idea.
The Hellblazer story and other shaming would be perfect as an opening podcast episode, by the way.
I've not forgotten about that, Thomson, you snivelling, putrid, maggot! If you don't agree to do it, I'm going to sentence you to write a hundred more of that gamebook bilge you peddled in the 80s with that other crony of yours. What were they called? The Way of the Toga and Kestrel, that's it! You have been warned! - The Dark Lord.
I recommend everyone has a go at writing as The Dark Lord, Dave. If not for a competition to see who can come up with the best command, just because it's highly therapeutic!
There's Ozzy on the front and there's also that guy on the back cover, who I think John told me is a famous footballer. But why? Or maybe I dreamt that...
DeleteCollina, former Italian referee, perhaps? Struggling a bit on that one. I thought possibly Patrick Troughton front left, but maybe not. Why? As goes for quite a few things in John's books, I've absolutely no idea!
DeletePossibly Yul Brynner? Although he must have played non-league!
DeleteThat Goodreads review of Triffids paid dividends, Dave. Someone sent me a message/enquiry this morning so I've hopefully pointed them in the right direction. I did try and find the Wyndham Estate to be able to write to, without success. If you happen to know the details, let me know and I'll happily write to them if you think it would do any good.
I'm afraid I don't know anything about the Wyndham estate, Andy. My mental image of them is a bunch of guys sitting on a veranda in the outback somewhere, but they could just as easily be landed gentry in Shropshire. Mad Max or Lara Croft, take your pick. John is a member of the Wnydham Society, or do I mean the Triffid Club... something like that, I know they meet up to go around the locations mentioned in the book.
DeleteNo problem, Dave. I'll just keep blathering on how good it is then. You never know, a grandchild of Wyndham may eventually stumble upon it on Goodreads or some such, stranger things have happened.
DeleteLet me know if you ever find out who that footballer is/was!
I did, Andy -- John told me he was a rugger (not soccer) player called Brian Moore. No relation to Alan, I assume!
DeleteI'm not a Rugby fan, Dave, but I married into a Rugby liking family. I shoved the book in front of my wife's face and said (possibly shouted) who's that, then?! Answer? Brian Moore.
DeleteAnd wasn't there a Bobby Moore too? Or was he a racing car driver? Oh, sports are confusing.
DeleteI've sensed before sport isn't your specialist subject, Dave! Ah well, even Achilles had his heel. Yes, Bobby Moore the footballer, though he didn't achieve much. Also, Brian Moore the football commentator, now that could have got confusing!
DeleteI forgot to thank you by the way for your kind comment about The Man in the Hill book, it made my day if not my son's! My son's now saying Mwah ha ha ha! I've decided not to correct him about the superfluous ha, given his early influence in the field.
I've left a review of The Two Confessions on Amazon, Dave, for anyone interested. I've decided I can't wait until my holiday to start the Downs-Lord books! I've set myself of reading John's remaining works by the end of the year. Possibly unachievable and I'm sweating a bit due to the size of the Farouk books!
DeleteYou're going to need a longer holiday, Andy. Those Farouk books are real toe-breakers.
DeleteOh, and "Whit list" -- I like it!
DeleteShades of Look Around You, I think, Dave!
DeleteIn the spirit of Altered Englands, I wondered if I could relay a recent event to you? The book fired my imagination, and while I was reading it I was trying to recollect something spooky that happened to me years ago, but no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn't come back to me. On Friday I spent a night in Bridlington with my family in what constituted my summer holiday. While I was there I remembered it. It was relating to the first time my wife and I went there together years back on a day trip. As I was pulling the car up on a side street to park, I was telling her about how I used to come to a particular hotel every year when I was a small boy, but would have no chance of finding it, even if it still existed. Anyway, we got out the car, and there it was, right beside us, name unchanged and everything.
In itself, perhaps more large co-incidence than uncanny. However, as the memory popped back into my head, we were next to the harbour and the high winds were whistling through boat rigging, sounding like a chorus of ironic ghosts.
Meanwhile, Premier Inn have stopped taking poached egg orders at breakfast. Their lack of grapefruit juice disturbs me.
I'd always rather go scrambled myself, Andy. But these days it's poached every time if I'm cooking Sunday breakfast as my wife won't eat eggs any other way.
DeleteI digress. My own spooky English experience was when I went -- with John Whitbourn, as it happens -- to look at the grave of Mad Jack Fuller in Brightling churchyard, apocryphally the inspiration for M R James's story "The Tractate Middoth". As I walked to the car park, I glanced back and saw a man in the dress of a Regency squire passing in the street. He nodded to me and touched the brim of his top hat. I went back and looked along the street, but he was nowhere in sight.
Even non-believers like me enjoy a good "ghost" story!
Scrambled come a close second, Dave!
DeleteI just can't now get out of my head a man in the dress of a Regency squire either going back to his wife or perhaps even room full of fellow regency ghosts and saying, you're not going to believe this, I've just seen Dave Morris!
Is there a collective noun for ghosts, Dave?! A limbo of?
DeleteAccording to Wiki it's "a fraid of ghosts", Andy, but I think that's just somebody being cute.
DeleteI reckon it's more likely the squire I saw will have asked his ghostly mates, "Who was that bloke in the car park with John Whitbourn?"
LOL on both fronts, Dave! That's a point, what did John make of it all, assuming you told him?
DeleteOh, John believes in all those sorts of things, Andy. For me the fun (of both ghostly fiction and "real" ghost sightings) is knowing it's not true.
DeleteI wouldn't disagree, Dave, but I still keep the lights on for a bit after putting down one of John's books!
DeleteA few other odd co-incidences having thought about it. I bumped into a mate ages back that I'd not seen for a few years. I was telling him about a small place in Spain I'd brought. He told me he'd done the same. I told him I'd watched the Cheltenham horse racing festival in a bar over there. He said he had a local bar that he watched the racing in also. You can probably guess the ending.
A slightly spookier one. My father in law had his family tree looked at. Something like my wife's great, great, great, great grandmother and her sister had the same name as my wife and her sister.
Not exactly Tales of the Unexpected admittedly, but I can see how the seed of something can develop into a story for an author.
Last time bothering you on this particular post, Dave (other than possibly, thanks). ML James collected ghost stories, are they worth getting (and if so, any particular edition)?
Delete!!!!!! M R James. I swear on all I hold dear, these errors and omissions are not intended!
DeleteI wouldn't mind, but L is on the other side of the bloody keyboard! EL James Ghost stories...
DeleteThat'll teach me for Bobby Moore.
DeleteThe ghost stories of EL James -- that's a genuinely scary thought, Andy. But also a surefire commercial gimmick. If she was published by Oliver's company I'd even suggest it, but I see she's at Penguin. Funny that, as they were always so magisterially disdainful of having the success of the Fighting Fantasy series on their hands.
DeleteAnyway, you asked about MR James. Definitely worth getting, though you wouldn't want to sit and read through them all in one go. A book to dip into now and again, I reckon, like the collected Saki.
If you don't mind reading on screen (I prefer a dead tree version myself) they're all in public domain on Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8486
thanks
DeleteI would love a podcast. I would love to know about the process of creating the books, the RPG sessions you have and how the books were made. I'm sure you have lots of material.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Stuart. I suppose at a pinch I could read Jamie's part too...
DeleteProposed title for the Podcast: "Fabled Island Books". Does that sound like a good starting point for each discussion ?
ReplyDeletePS If Jamie isn't keen, I could think of 50 reasons you might pick another member of your regular gaming group ... ;)
Now there's a thought. See my reply to Nigel's comment below for a possible co-host...
DeleteWhat was your proposed name for Dragon Warriors? Heroes and Dead Men or something... perhaps you could call the podcast that?
ReplyDeleteDead Men & Heroes -- well remembered. And it was Nick Henfrey, the co-designer of Lord of Light and co-publisher of Mortal Combat, who came up with that. He and I were working on a boardgame called Zombomba before the pandemic hit.
DeleteI was going to suggest Down amongst the dead men but that seemed a bit maudlin and hopefully very premature :-) !!!
DeleteThat would have been the perfect name back in our whisky-drinking days. Now I'm more of a mineral water guy.
Delete"The Dead Friends of Baron Aldred", anyone ?
DeleteI've finally listened to and enjoyed the podcast, and was much flattered by the way that you attributed to me all the good ideas about doing Tetsubo that you had. My role, as I recall, was the online equivalent of nodding sagely, with the occasional 'Yeah, that'd be good'.
ReplyDeleteI bet Yoda would say the same: "Sure, Skywalker came to Dagobah. He says I trained him to be a Jedi? Nah, all I did was nod sagely at the kid."
DeleteI think you need to work on your Yoda speak Dave. I think it should go something like “Trained him you say? Hmmm hmmm. Trains herself a true Jedi does.The path Yoda shows. Walk the path alone a Jedi must. Hmmm hmmm”. ;-)
ReplyDeleteI knew it! The minute that guy tried to flog me a used lightsabre I should've guessed he wasn't the real Yoda.
DeleteSecond Nigel, I do !
DeleteHas anyone read the film scripts for Star Wars re-written as by William Shakespeare in iambic pentameter (with the help of Ian Doescher) ? They're really rather good.
Is there an RPG out there, a Shakespearean era swashbuckler, wherein players have to describe their actions using only iambic pentametric verse ?
If not, there should be !
I did try pitching a GURPS Shakespeare book to SJG a number of years back. No takers, but it did eventually lead to "The Right Duke" scenario:
Deletehttp://fabledlands.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-right-duke-shakespearean-world-war.html
I was hoping the players would adopt Shakespearean speech patterns, which come easy enough to somebody raised on the writings of Stan Lee and Roy Thomas, but they didn't really get it. Which is the case for a lot of my scenarios, come to think.
That's a pity, Dave ! Perhaps you should have insisted on Shakespeare- shaped speech rhythms as a game mechanic: i.e your character can only do things described in iambic pentameter.
DeleteI think that counting metrical feet is at least as fun as counting dots on a dice !
I have noticed lately, John, that my notions of what makes an interesting game don't really appeal to most of my players. Often it seems like I'm offering a niche cable drama and they want a network show. But that doesn't stop me inflicting my barmy ideas on readers of the blog ;-)
DeleteI'm sure you can tell that we're happy to be inflicted upon !
DeleteI won't deny that I've enjoyed 'Disney Plus' for 'Hamilton' and the 'Mandalorian' - the former an exuberant injection of hip- hop poetry into the historical melodrama of Les Miserables, the latter an unashamed triumph of style over substance (in which the director of 'Iron Man' seems to have posed himself the question: what if instead of play- boy Tony Stark, Iron Man was Clint Eastwood - in Space - with a super cute Muppet as his sidekick ??).
But I'm sure I'm not alone in saying we'd all subscribe to "Fabled Lands Plus" ;-)
I'm not usually a fan of Broadway-style musicals, but Hamilton seems to be a must-see. And it might help hone my rap writing skills, which a recent blog post proved are in need of improvement. But as for a Star Wars space Western... with Muppets? Yikes.
DeleteI definitely recommend "Hamilton" though I would say give it 15- 20 minutes to adjust to the rhythms of the rap music...after that it all falls into place and in my opinion is a quite beguiling combination of heartfelt emotion/ energy, school playery, historical nerdery and the kind of clever poetry that cracks a smile on your face.
Delete"Our deal was with King Louis,
But his head's in a basket-
Shall we ask it ?"
As for "The Mandalorian" I definitely absolve you from having to watch it. As I say, it is all about style (some might say shadow) and not substance. It is superficial fun and no more - designed to generate social media memes.
Sadly though, for reasons which don't require 'bullet point' explanations, I feel The Mandalorian and "Baby Yoda" (the Muppet) are much more likely to get a second season than Al-Ex-An-D-Er Hamilton...
Anyway, that's my two space dollars worth !
PS Please tell Roz that I am reading "Not Quite Lost" and very much enjoying it. I am sorry about the house on Alderley Edge; but I have a feeling that demolished houses never really go. They just de-materialize like the Tardis, and one day you might hear, from round the corner, that particular noise...
Something has definitely gone wrong with its chameleon circuit, then, John -- it's now materializing as a luxury car park with more glass than Murano and less taste than Ronaldo:
Deletehttps://bit.ly/2F2lSJe
Check out 5m 47s for the obvious nod to Doctor Who set design!
Oh gosh ! Yes, it's like a cross between The Master's Tardis and Al Pacino's mansion from "Scarface".
DeleteIt was rather sad seeing the original house at the beginning awaiting its 'execution'. I do hope it is still out there somewhere on the winds of time !
Hi John! I love your idea of the house still existing around a temporal corner.... and indeed here it is. The Woolf published the Eve of Destruction piece with my pictures https://www.thewoolf.org/2017/12/01/eve-destruction-childhood-home/
DeleteThanks Roz ! Very interesting to see the pictures. Even gone, Edge Croft seems so much more solid and real than the stage-set that replaced it !
DeleteI have a map of our local area which shows a now entirely vanished road of 'grand old houses' that ran alongside Crosby beach, and would have enjoyed majestic views of the sunset out across the Irish Sea. All now lost, but (preferably, and more romantically) to the waves like Atlantis or Dunwich, and not to property developers !
An entirely vanished row of grand houses! How lovely. And creatively provocative. I can't help but imagine the lives those houses contained.
DeleteAbsolutely ! I've got an old OS map of Blundellsands from 1907 which shows these sea- front villas, all labelled with grand (and to some degree, fate tempting !) names : Edgewater, Holmside, Red House, Beachside Towers, Netherwood. By the time the 1927 edition of the map was prepared, all of them were lost to sea & sand, apart from (ironically) Edgewater, which was still clinging on, swathed by its gardens, alone commanding a front- row view of the confluence of the Mersey and the Irish Sea. Seemingly determined, like an Edwardian anecdote of King Canute, not to surrender its dignity until its feet were really wet...But nowadays it too is as vanished as your own Edge Croft.
DeleteThough, perhaps we might agree - vanished, but not gone !
Here's a house on the edge if ever I saw one:
Deletehttps://sefton-digital-archive.org/archive/categories/coast/628521-coastal-erosion-blundellsands
That's it Dave !
DeleteWhat an estate agent would gloss as "a beach-front property", but which might rather more accurately be described as a "beach-in-your-front-room property" ;-)
Lights Sabre? You want a blaster. And if you’re in the market I’ve got a great ship to sell you. A little light weight Corellian freighter...it’s a bit beat up (previous owners a bit careless) and it’s been round the universe a couple of times but it can still make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs... Got a few modifications too, in case Imperial Customs and Excise are on your case if you know what I mean...
ReplyDeleteDon't get me started on parsecs...
DeleteYes it’s distance rather than time from memory...
ReplyDeleteNot the biggest physics goof in a series that has bombs falling in zero-g :-)
DeleteBut did you enjoy it? You must have given it follows the Hero’s Journey/Campbell’s mono myth structure to the letter with threshold crossing and guardians and shapeshifters etc etc you’re programmed as a human being to enjoy, relate and be educated regardless of age, culture or gender right? *tongue firmly in cheek*
ReplyDeleteAs my wife will (ruefully) attest, when watching SF my first reference isn't The Hero's Journey but The Feynman Lectures :-)
Delete