The City Stained Red by Sam Sykes

Finished off Sam Sykes' The City Stained Red.

Great stuff.

There are a few authors I'd compare Sam's style to. Might give any readers a frame of reference as to not only my preferences in terms of grouping, but how Sam compares to others.

K J Parker, author of books like the Folding Knife.

Mark Lawrence, author of series like The Broken Empire (Prince of Thorns, etc...)

Joe Abercrombie, author of books like Half A King.

These authors tend to be a little darker.

They tend to be a little... funnier. There is a fair amount of sarcasm not only in how the world acts, but in how the characters tend to see themselves.

They are also solid writers.

In the City Stained Red, a group of adventurers makes their way to the City of Silk to collect overdue pay only to wind up knee deep in the dead.

How can a game master use such a fantasy novel in their own games?

1. Steal the Setting: The City of Silk has a lot going on for it. There are numerous guilds, organizations, and tension that run underneath it all. The city is known for it's silk and all of the sudden, one of the merchants of silk starts making silk better than anyone else. His secret? Hey, feed those giant spiders people! Turns out a strong silk.

In terms of silk, anyone remember the old Arduin books? These were little fantasy books meant to be their own system as well as work with old school Dungeons and Dragons. One of the things you could get in it, was Spiga Silk. There were different types of these monsters, indicated by color, but at best, one of these types of silk had the protection of plate mail armor and hey, as a thief? Effectively wearing no armor meant a boost to your skills.

2. Blow it up: They always say you should murder your children right? By the end of the City Stained Red, the City of Silk has undergone massive change. Religious wars, guild wars, and perhaps the end of the world on the horizon. Hundreds if not thousands of people dead, whole power structures shifted. All the things that make moving forward even more entertaining.

3. Surprise! At the end of the book, the 'leader' of the group discovers that a 'friend' of his is not what he seems. Not what he seems at all. It's going to lead to some entertainment in the next book for sure.

There are other bits I could talk about. There's the world structure itself. The familiar yet different fantasy races. The icons that fit into standard fantasy given a slight tilt to make them interesting to the reader.

But really you should get yourself a copy and read it.

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Have you ever gotten to something from a roundabout way?

On RPG.net, on a thread, "Are there any books of Advice for RPG Players?", user king_kaboom mentioned Stephen King's novel, On Writing. My mom is a huge fan of Stephen King so I raided her library and sure enough, she had a copy of the book.

I quickly devoured it. If you're a writer, a person who wants to write, or just want to read a quick moving first person narration, On Writing should be right up your alley. Highly recommended.

But then, how did I get to Oliver Twist?

Stephen King, much like the original Dungeon Master's Guide, has his own 'Appendix N', but his is "And Furthermore, Part II: A Booklist". I've cribbed a few of the books for my next trip to Half-Price Books and looked on Amazon.

One of the books was a free version, Oliver Twist!

This may sound strange, but I can't recall having seeing Oliver Twist much less reading it. I know some of the famous lines like when Oliver is asking for more porridge mind you, but that's probably from culture assimilation from movie commercials as opposed to actually having seen the movie.

It's an interesting reading experience. The terminology is vastly different than the words in common use today. Some of it reflects rather strangely on modern society.

"The oldest inhabitants recollected no period at which measles had been so prevalent, or so fatal to infant existence; and many were the mournful processions which little Oliver headed, in a hat-band reaching down to his knees, to the indescribable admiration and emotion of all the mothers in the town."

"'What do you mean by this?' said Sikes; backing the inquiry with a very common imprecation concerning the most beautiful of human features: which, if it were heard above, only once out of every fifty thousand times that it is uttered below, would render blindness as common a disorder as measles: 'what do you mean by it? "

It's odd to hear how measles in a book published in 1838 is talking about the horrors of a disease that people are fighting against vaccination today. Ugh.

It's a prime example of how things that were life threatening and taken in a far different manner today are dismissed. How the arrogance of 'modern' man allows us such freedom that we think we know better because we haven't had to suffer through the horrors that a disease being so common might bring.

In terms of Oliver Twist? I am for the most part unimpressed. It might be the time it was written. It might be the methodology in which is was written. It might be that I prefer the characters in the books I read to have more agency in their own affairs.

Oliver for much of the book is either laid up sick, shot, or awaiting as he suffers one type of imprisonment over another. That's not the type of character I would hope players would make at my table.

The book might have been better off if it had been called The Tale of Mr. Brownlow or something of that nature. Oliver suffers much misfortune, but on several occasions is saved from the worst aspects of life by strangers who have no reason to take him in. In those aspects it's a feel good story.

But some of the other characters provide more interesting.

For example, the Artful Dodger. He embodies several things that make him stand out as a worthy character. For one, while a child, he dresses in adult clothing that's too large for him. For another, he is 'serious' as an adult. He also has respect for his mentor, Fagin. He also has some friendship with Oliver, although he has no problems abandoning Oliver when necessity calls for it.

As an outside look, the other thing that's interesting about the Artful Dodger, is that he's caught on an almost unrelated incident. It's not that he's caught that's the problem, it's that the world will never know how great the Artful Dodger was as a thief. If the Artful Dodger were to boast of his numerous exploits, it would doom his fellow rogues. Can't have that. The rogues themselves have a good time recalling his many adventures and successes. 

That would be a solid way of characters having to look for information. The rogue they need to know about is dead and apparently wasn't that good of a thief. Those who know where to look for the information though, may find a whole different layer under the 'upper crust' that knows the truth of how valuable a rogue that died was!

Another bit that's probably not used too often in RPGs, is the unintended consequences. One of the characters is a rogue whose main characteristic is his reliance on violence. He quickly learns that there is a bit of difference between being a thief and a murderer as the murderer attracts far more attention and from a far different crowd than just a thief. 

There's also a great deal of locations in the book that could bear some transporting straight to a campaign. One of the things that may strike old friends of the series Thieves World was the 'Maze' where alleys made things treacherous and death lurked around every corner.  Past such structures in London is found Jacob's Island. 

From Oliver Twist, "... crazy wooden galleries common to the backs of half a dozen houses, with holes from which to look upon the slime beneath; windows, broken and patched, with poles thrust out, on which to dry the linen that is never there; rooms so small, so filthy, so confined, that the air would seem to be too tainted even for the dirt and squalor which they shelter; wooden chambers thrusting themselves out above the mud and threatening to fall into it - as some have done; dirt-besmeared walls and decaying foundations, every repulsive lineament of poverty, every loathsome indication of filth, rot, and garbage: all these ornament the banks of Jacob's Island."

If you look at that wiki entry and have no ideas on how to put it into a game system, well, we're looking at things differently. 

When I read something like Oliver Twist, even if it's not full of swordsmen and magicians battling the tides of chaos and other classic chestnuts, it's important to think, "Well, what COULD I use." As often as not, there are many things ranging from a certain feel of the setting being read, to names, to habits and physical descriptions.

When reading, try to keep an open mind as to what may be useful as opposed to what may not be useful.

I can easily see someone using Oliver Twist as the basis for a Thieves World style campaign or breaking out the very OSR book Haven and using it as the basis for a whole different series of rogues.

For those who've read Stephen King's On Writing, are there any other books that you would prioritize in his booklist? For those who've read other older books like Oliver Twist, have you found yourself pondering why or how such a book has survived the test of time?

Leave a comment below!

Kundo: Age of the Rampant

I knew about Kundo from previews,  I had seen on Hulu back when it was first show in theaters in America. It looked like a solid action film but I did not get the chance to see it in the movies. While looking at various martial arts action films, I stumbled upon this on Netflix. 

Kundo is a South Korean martial arts film. The costumes and weapons are great but it feels a little long in the tooth. There are several characters but really only one main one, Dolchi, a former butcher who uses two massive clever style weapons.

Part of the problem is that the movie is too long clocking in over two hours time. In some movies that can be nothing and it can flash by in a minute. In this one, you keep waiting for the inevitable duel between Dolchi and Jo Yoon, his nemesis. 

I give Kundo, as an action film, three stars and its worth watching if you want to see all the different costumes and unique weapons.

For those who often wonder how to run a Oriental Adventurers game or Legend of the Five Rings, this would be a good 'introduction' film in that many of the issues the 'heroes', a group of bandits have with the legitimate rulers, are issues that could be common to almost any setting and almost any time period.

Here's a summary by Wiki: "it is about a power struggle between the unjust wealthy noblemen who run society and a group of righteous outlaws who steal from corrupt officials to give to the downtrodden and starving"  Is it about Robin Hood? Is it about some Solos and Net Runners in the future? It's an easy, almost too generic plot piece but it is a prime example of how people can sometimes get too involved in the 'culture' of a foreign land and forget about the basics.

In terms of gaming, it has several things going for it that make it more interesting than if you were only watching it for the action sequences.

1. Environment: One of my old favorite fight scenes is from Ninja Scroll. Our main hero, Jubei, is outfought by a blind swordsman but in a bamboo forest, the hero is able to use the forest to his advantage and claim victory.

In this movie, Jo Yoon is such a bad ass that he beats Dolchi easily several times. Even in the 'heroic' end game rematch, Jo Yoon holds the upper hand until Dolchi leads him into a bamboo forest that hinders his movements. The bamboo though, isn't brick or steel and it makes for a great sequence as they both slash through the trees and have to dodge the falling debris. 

Note that it appears that fighting in a bamboo forest is a bit of 'old school' itself for such action movies.  

2. Non-Player Character Motivation: I'm going to sound a little rambling here. Jo Yoon is the illegitimate son of a noble. He is taken out of his mother's house, a house of prostitution, and raised at home because the noble has no male heirs. Then the wife sees this and uses a variety of methods to become pregnant and gives birth to a male heir. Bad news for Jo Yoon in many ways.

First, his parents treat him as a second class citizen which causes him to act out, which causes the parents to discipline him even worse.

Then he decides, "Well, I know how to take care of this problem" and goes to suffocate his baby half brother. But when he starts to, he looks at his baby brother and realizes that he cannot do it. This could have been a turning point for him.

But he's caught by his mother-in-law and well, the punishment is sever including his birth mother killed and his personal valet crippled. These acts help explain why he's such a vile bastard and even still loyal to his own father.

His main motivation is to be the heir to the family, and it appears that when his half-brother is killed by the 'heroic bandits', that his time may have come. But the wife was pregnant. This leads to all sorts of things ranging from hiring a butcher to kill the wife, to destroying the village of the heroes, including slaughter of women and children.

At this point, Jo Yoon for some reason, brings home the rightful heir instead of just killing him. Bad idea as now his father sees the true heir and doesn't appoint Jo Yoon the position. Anyone remember the Russel Crowe movie Gladiator? Anyone remember the discussion on the Four Virtues and the claims that "I have other virtues." 

The son so wanting, so needing to be loved by his father, finally does the unthinkable and committed patricide. 

But when he turns to the child, again, Jo Yoon cannot find it in him to kill a baby. He's older now. More wicked now. More capable of even the foulest deeds. But for whatever reason, even when it puts his own life in danger, he protects the child. 

These elements make for great bits. They make Jo Yoon more 'complete' as a character if you will than the hero Dolchi who is essentially Batman looking for vengeance.

My own problem comes in in that we, the audience, known this. But no one else does. In a role playing game, the depth of the non-player characters isn't' known by the characters, or isn't accessible to the characters, say from friends of Jo Yoon, or from journals, or from some other sort of records like punishment records, then it doesn't exist anywhere but in the Game Master's Mind.

The greatest stories in the world that aren't known arent' great stories, they're not great motivations, and their not all the useful to the players.

They can cement the character for the Game Master though, and in that aspect at least, still have value.

Themes are often times universal. I've mentioned several Western films, and other forms of medium, like anime, that use the themes and scenarios painted in Kundo. When you're watching a wide variety of material, see what's cycling over and over again. See what works when it's used over and over again and pluck it out for your own use when you can.

Now I have to find another movie to kill some time! Anyone have any recommendations?

Discovering the Ice Caves

The above image is taken from the Smithsonian Article, "Deep Freeze Reveals Lake Superior's Secluded Ice Caves and is a tumblir picture from stpaulgirl.

 When it gets cold enough to freeze over lakes, well, things happen. Some of those things that may happen, is that the caves in the lake are revealed.

When I first heard about this earlier this winter, I tagged it to post about later because it makes a great adventure bit. Check out the website as it has several more pictures of the lake and makes great reference points for players. 

In the comic Lock And Key, there is an entrance to a demonic world that is in a cave and the cave is buried under water.

In many fantasy tales, including say the Hobbit when the Company is trying to find the entrance to the dwarf stronghold, they can only do so at a very specific time and under very specific circumstances.

Having locations that are inaccessible for much of the standard time of the campaign, provides such hidden locations mystic feel. It also prevents them from being trampled on by every other adventurer in the region.

When placing your dungeons and your dangerous areas, don't forget to add a few that can only be reached in very specific circumstances and if you want to be a real bastard about it, can only be left under similar circumstances!

The Shining by Stephen King

My mom has owned the Shining for decades. Yesterday I finally got around to reading it. Mind you I've seen the movie adaptation with Jack Nicolas and parts of the television version but never read the book.

Recently Stephen King decided to write a sequel to this book, a new novel called Doctor Sleep. That prompted my mom to get the Kindle edition while it was on sale and I figured I'd get the Kindle version of the Shining while it was on sale.

Wow. What a great book. I'll would say I'm throwing spoilers out left and right but there wasn't that much I'd take from the novel to a game in terms of the characters. There are some bits that are fantastic, but really it's the strength of King's writing to get us inside the heads of the characters, in a very small cast, that carries the novel forward. Now I'll be very curious to see how the sequel is. When we write things decades apart, they may not have the same flow, tone, or 'voice'. I'll be curious to see how Danny compares now to how Stephen first wrote him.

But there are some things I like about the novel that would make for great bits.

For example, how about the hedge monsters? In the hotel, there are several hedge animals, lions, dogs, and others, that at times seem to move, to encircle the watcher, to advance only when they are not watched. At the end of the novel, they are definitely on the attack and there is no assumption that the character in question is hallucinating.

The Overlook, the hotel that in and of itself is a character in the Shining, has a few parts that make great role playing tools or at least the inspiration for them.

For example, the hotel feeds on psychic energy. For most people, it's just a normal hotel. But when Danny, a powerful psychic enters it, the hotel comes to life and does things its never done before. This can be anything from say, having a user of arcane magic enter the hotel, to any type of energy, like a psionic or a divine spell user enter it.

The GM could also just pull a Castle Amber or the Vanishing Tower, where the Overlook only comes into contact with the real world at certain points and certain times and that those who enter rarely leave.

In addition, the hotel is able to pull things from the entirety of its history. It does this without problem with Jack is losing his mind and does so in such a powerful way, that Wendy and Danny are aware of what's happening. These ghosts are even able to influence the real world such as freeing Jack from the temporary location his wife has placed him.

Imagine that the characters need a clue, a bit of information from another time. They've spoken with the elves, dwarves, and other long lived races but the bit they need is said to be known only to a particular sadist who died in your version of the Overlook. Imagine that there are those who might have their own agendas that may wish to escape from the Overlook and offer assistance to the players in exchange for such assistance?

The GM may have to determine if these are just ghosts, echoes of the real people or if they are actually able to escape. Or perhaps there is a mix? Previous adventurers who have become trapped in the overlook, some of them gone mad and others desperate to escape from the insanity?

The Shining was well written. It allowed the reader to delve deep into the characters heads. If your players give you enough back ground information that you can tweak them, give them 'alternative' versions of the history they wrote down, things seen as they might be from a twisted point of view, you'll be able to get them shaking their fist at the evil GM in no time.