Benjamin Franklin by Walter Isaacson

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life
Written by Walter Isaacson
Published by Simon and Schuster Paperbacks
$19.99/$8.93 At Amazon

I don't delve too often into semi-modern historical bits on the blog as I mainly play Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, both settings firmly 'rooted' if you will, in the 'dark ages' although they often rise up to technology and living standards that surpass many modern parts of the world.

If anything, reading Benjamin Franklin increases that dissonance I have with most fantasy settings where full plate is a common thing but guns aren't. Where swashbucklers and pirates are a common theme but again, guns are verboten.

For example, as many 'lone wolf' characters as we often see in fiction and at the tabletop, they would stand out in direct contrast to many of their friends and families. Benjamin Franklin himself is one of twenty children his father had with two wives.

Twenty children. It's a large number for sure, and the kids range in age all over the place, but there are others who had numerous children at the time as well. Maybe it's not so unusual when a player says his name is whatever the 2nd!

Another terrible thing, even in Benjamin Franklin's time, was that for women, it still was not a safe time to be giving birth.  "It was not unusual for men in colonial New England to outlive two or three wives. Of the first eighteen women who came to Massachusetts in 1628 for example, fourteen died within a year." (pg. 13)

The other thing in having a family is it adds drama. Franklin fathered a few children himself. One died of Smallpox before he could be inoculated against the disease. At the time, even then, there were "anti-Vaxxers" who believed it was bad to be inoculated. Franklin was not one of them and made his positions clear on the subject often.

Among Franklin's brood was William, an illegitimate son, who in turn sired Template, another illegitimate child. William was a Loyalist to England who wound up on the wrong side of history and estranged from his father.

What was worse was that Template was with Benjamin Franklin instead of being with his own father. This gave Benjamin huge swathes of influence over the young man. The generational gaps would never be healed in their instances.

In games with long-lived races such as elves, who can bear half-elves, generational stories might not be that unusual. For his time, Franklin lived an enormously long time, dying at 84. In a game where characters can live hundreds of years?

Franklin was also a bit of a scientist. One of the things he invented, or at least is credited with, are bi-focal glasses. My mom long having used these, it's one thing I'd have to tip my at to him for.

But another thing is the lightning rod.

Reading this book, it quickly became apparently that lightning strikes inflicted much damage to property, setting fires and killing scores or people at a time. "For centuries, the devastating scourge of lightning had generally been considered a supernatural phenomenon or expression of God's will. At the approach of a storm, church bells were run to ward off the bolts. "The tones of the consecrated metal repel the demon and avert storm and lightning," declared St. Thomas Aquinas. But even the most religiously faithful were likely to have noticed this was not very effective. During one thirty-five-year period in Germany alone during the mid-1700s, 386 churches were struck and more than one hundred bell ringers killed. In Venice, some three thousand people were killed when tons of gunpowder stored in a church was hit." (pg 137)

And Benjamin Franklin solved that problem.

Which is probably just one of those things taken for granted in pretty much every fantasy setting. While still ignoring guns. Because you know, guns are bad?

I know I'm harping on it but it strikes me as strange, and I get that for other people who've grown up on just traditional fantasy that it's just the way things are.

Like most fantasy settings being one giant continent and travel being a matter of going from one place to another via horse. Whereas Franklin himself made some odd eight trips across the ocean. He traveled from his home in America to London. He traveled to Paris. He traveled all about in those places including Ireland and Scotland. Most fantasy settings have a hard time getting one period of England, so they tend to include all of them. And Vikings. And pirates. And various merchants boats that really have nowhere to go as even in the Forgotten Realms, their 'Jungels of Chult' is still on the mainland itself.

So the fantasy books fill their pages with these massive and impressive ships trying to capture the era and age of piracy and capture the look often, and some of the technical specs, but then, of course, leave out all of the cannons.

Mind you, I suspect part of this is that most game mechanics fail to get weapons right in the first place. The stats most weapons have isn't based on historical accuracy or leathalness, they are based on balancing game mechanics.

I've  read in some of the Cornwell research and elsewhere, including this book, that Franklin bemoaned the lack of trained archers in the colonies because archers could be so much more dangerous than the standard musket fire of the time. The speed, accuracy, and intimation factors were huge bonuses.

The amount of time Franklin lived, and his practical application of science to the working world, also allowed him to change it. This is something that most games seem reluctant to do. Oh sure, they'll make changes in a huge edition switch, move the timeline up, ignore players and their characters for a hundred years, and render numerous sourcebooks obsolete, but allow the players themselves to change the setting?

In a way, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If you allow the players to make huge changes to the setting, future sourcebooks in the setting become less and less useful. Oh, these nations invented X finally? The players in your campaign invested and distributed X months ago in the real world and over a year ago in game time.

In addition to the inventions, Franklin lived in a world of shifting alliances. The French would use natives to attack the then British colonies. The colonies would have to form their own militias and also seek out help from Britan. Britan would send help, but there was always cost associated with that.

Later, when fighting against Britan, the Colonies would seek out help from the French, who themselves had to work with their allies, the Spanish, as both countries were against the British but had lost much face and strength against the British in previous wars.

There are also the numerous places Franklin goes and visits and the happenings around him. This is a man who formed the Junto, an organization of like minded thinkers to advance each other's social standing and financial standing. He's also a man so well loved that when he last left France, the party thrown for him aboard his departing boat lasted until four in the morning.

His home in America was changed to accommodate his larger family including a connection between the two houses. This could lead to some interesting designs if there were upper walkways as opposed to just two houses connected through a basement.

Benjamin Franklin, An American Life, is a well written and well researched tale. It gives you a taste of those in power, those rising in power, and the era that Franklin would help herald in. He was far from a perfect man, and his deism ways would cause friction with numerous parties including such famous individuals as Samuel Adams among others.

Walter Isaacson brings the time, the struggle, and the flaws of the great man, the so  called First American, to light in a way that few before or after have mached. Well worth  the reading if you want to get the old brain juices flowing.

The Seventh Seal (1957)

The Criterion Collection is leaving +Hulu . The Halloween season is upon us.

So The Seventh Seal seemed an appropriate movie.

For those who've never seen it, you should. Highly recommended.

It's one of Ingmar Berman's masterpieces. A crusader, Antonius Block, returning home from 10 years of war in the Crusades, during the time of the Black Death, is weary of spirit and sees a personification of Death who has come for him. Here we see perhaps the first use of Death playing a game to delay the inevitable.

This methodology was put to great comedic effect in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. I'd forgotten when I saw Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, that they cribbed even the look of Death from The Seventh Seal.



As a personification, Death here is, well, mild. He knows he has all the time in the world. He plays with Antonius and is in turned "played" by the crusader, but the viewer never knows if those plays by Antonius are successful or just Death allowing them to appear such.

As a personification, it could be "higher" than the Gods in a standard fantasy campaign. It doesn't need to be malicious like Bhaal or other Death Gods tend to be in the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. It's just something that happens.

Antonius Block is an interesting character if one were to look for inspiration for role-playing traits and motivations.

The later leads into the former.

Antonius is tired of NOT hearing God. He's always questioning. He's always seeking that big truth. He seeks it from Death, who remains silent on the matter. He seeks it from the Church, which provides no answers. He seeks it from fellow pilgrims and travelers. He is always questioning the overall purpose and arc of life itself, of his life itself. This questioning provides a tragic frame to Antonius, much like Warlock from Marvel Comics or Elric, seeking to fight his nature but being trapped in the world, must eventually yield to it.

His squire, Jons, is a man of the real world. He knows what life is and it's not happy. Described as a nihilist, he nonetheless isn't evil. He saves a woman from being raped and killed for example. He sees evil being done and would rise against it to another woman condemned to die as a witch. He merely sees things the way he thinks they are and is frank about it. This stoic nature makes him a great contrast to his seeking master.

There's also the setting. The Black Plague is everywhere. People die from it frequently. It's referenced as the end of the world. It sets the stage for a death that cannot be reasoned with. Cannot be bargained with. A death that strikes noble knight and lowly leper with equal ease.

Then there's the background of where the knight's coming from, the Crusades and 10 years of war. During the trip back to the knight's manor, Jon finds the priest who convinced his master to go to the Crusades in the middle of stealing from the dead and about to rape and murder a servant girl. Jon is not happy. His master's demeanor changed by the horrors of war and he lets the fallen priest know, should they meet again, Jon will mark the priest so others know what a liar and fiend he is.

These huge events, the Black Plague, and the Crusade, showcase how vast and uncaring the world is. There can be several things going on in your campaign at the same time and they should all have an impact to those that must experience them.

There is no raising one's hands and begging enough. There is no exception for already having suffered from one calamity. There is just life and the events that must be endured.

This is a movie I could watch again and again. The black and white filming, the nature of the questor and his stoic squire, the background characters, the threat of plague, the damnation of a man spent 10 years in war... it's all powerful stuff and well told.

The Singing Sword by Jack Whyte (Appendix N Edition)

The Singing Sword
Written by Jack Whyte
Published by Tor
$17.99 paperback ($12.93 Amazon)
560 pages (mass market paperback version)

When looking at things to take as inspiration from a novel, sometimes there are things we already know. Thing's we've already used. But things we haven't used in a long time. Game 'tricks' and 'tips' are like a muscle, when a specific technique isn't used in a while, it fades.

With that in mind:

Letters: Caius Britannicus son is a military son whose off fighting in various parts of the world. He writers his father several times. This allows the reader to get a taste of who leaders are in different parts of the world, what actions of importance are happening, and acts as potential foreshadowing to things that may happens in Caius' part of the world.

When looking at your own game, do the characters know people from other parts of the world that would think enough of them to send them letters? Many games, like Call of Cthulhu, make extensive use of the written word to relay vital information to the players. The author K. J. Parker makes good use of letters as communication in his novel, The Folding Knife.

But how can you use it in a game like Dungeons and Dragons say?

Look at it from a traditional class perspective:

Warriors: Those who are in a guild, might tell the players of new enemies that they have fought. They might send word of new weapons they have discovered. They might talk of new fortresses being built. 

Clerics: Might make mention old religious icons or texts found. Might mention the rise of an opposing religion. Might mention a prophet of their own religion that has been seen all about the world and tell the players to keep an eye out for him.

Wizards: Might speak of planar disruptions. Might talk about new spells that have been discovered. If the players are very friendly, might even include new spells. Not every spell needs to be torn from a crypt and if the players have invested the time and energy to cultivate good relations with others, those relations should also have a pay out.

Rogues: Might relate if a guild war has broken out. Might speak of a new "sheriff" in town. Might speak of a wagon full of riches that are moving into the player's area and the rogues will share this information... for a price!

Historians: Not all "classes" need to of an adventuring type. The players are often looking for lost legends and lore and historians can provide that. Try to give each historian it's own feel and flavor to insure that the characters can tell them apart in letters. Maybe one always sends missives that are stained with mustard and foodstuffs while another sends only immaculately clean and pressed letters with perfect writing.

Military: I've mentioned the military before because as an organization, it has a lot of utility. But one theme I failed to mention, is stuck behind enemy lines.

Being stuck behind enemy lines is a trope It's such a trope, that there are actually movies with it as the title. 



But there are all manner of scenarios to think about. There's the short term stuck behind enemy lines where the players have to fight their way out.

There's the short term where they have to sneak their way out.

But what about the long term? What if the players are part of a military group on an island where the natives destroy the military encampments and burn the boats and it's going to take at least a year for the player's reinforcements to get there?

What happens when the player's "friendly" alliance shows up? With they think the players have gotten too chummy with the natives? Will the players have to fight former friends and allies? 

The Singing Sword is filled with great ideas ranging from "The Lady of the Lack" being an ingot of Skystone metal that "gives" the sword Excalibur to the forging of bloodlines to save the ideas of civilization itself. 

Vagabond: Gaming Edition Version

Welcome to Vagabond Gaming edition! I debated including some ideas on how I’d use Vagabond in my previous post but decided I wanted that to just sit as its own post as a review of the book. Any opinions on that or is it better to just keep review and inspiration ideas all together? Sound off in the comments!

Note, a lot of what I pull from most sources, isn’t necessarily for dungeon crawl games. It’s not that I have anything against such games, far from it. It’s also some advice that you may have read before. Perhaps even here on this very blog!

But when reading books, most don’t involve dungeons at all. Most involve characters and locations and when you enjoy a book and can bring the elements of the book you enjoy to the table? That’s a win.

Names: “As well as Hellgiver and Widowmaker, thee was Stone-Hurler, Crusher, Gravedigger, Stonewhip, Spiteful, Destroyer and Hand of God.” In the book these are the names given to siege weapons but damn, don’t they sound powerful? They give each siege weapon their own identity outside of siege weapons one through nine.

Names can also be descriptive in terms of the person they belong to. Beggar for example. “…but Beggar was an enormous man, a shambling giant with a face so bearded that his nose and eyes alone could be see through the tangled, crusted hair beneath the brim of the rusted iron cap that served as a helmet.”

Languages: I appreciate that almost every fantasy and science fiction setting includes a “common” tongue or a “trade” language. But it the real world that’s such nonsense eh? Even if you give players a “trade” tongue, keep an eye out for how you can use other languages in your game. At this point in England’s history, the French language is seen as a “noble” language. Latin is a “scholar” language. English itself may be a common tongue but it’s the vulgar one if so.

Give ethnicities their own languages and have them use it to communicate amongst themselves in front of the players. Give one culture historical reasons why it doesn’t like speaking another culture’s languages.

Holidays: There are numerous named days for various saints. These peppering of saints’ names throughout the book act in a few manners, but one of them is to tell the passage of time.  Other holidays may be very localized. For example, in Thomas’ old village, they used to drown rats on ships at high tide from boats weighed down with stones and those rats that sought escape, it would be similar to the old Simpson’s “Snake Whacking Day”. Hey, there was no television back in those days!

Freedom of Choice and Consequences From Freedom of Choice: I’m sure there’s a better way to say this so sound off in the comments if you have one.

At the start of Vagabond, Thomas is on a mission to retrieve information on the Grail from an elderly priest. He decides instead that he’s going to hang around and fight and sends his lover and friend to get that information. 

By not choosing to go, Thomas unintentionally gets his lover and friend killed. See, in a “living” setting, the bad guys are doing things too.

The villains of the campaign, especially one that’s not a dungeon crawl, should never be sitting around sighing that their bored waiting for the hero to come and kill them. They should be doing their own things and these things should be on a set schedule that can change as the setting changes.

For example, if Thomas has gone, the book would have taken a much different turn as Thomas would lose half his motivation for the rest of the book and might actually be done in about a third of the pages!

In your own campaigns, are there situations that require the players to be in two places at once? If they don’t go to both, what happens? A lot of the older adventurers set up adventures with rumor wheels but often, nothing happened regardless of which order the players took the challenges.

If you have time, don’t do that. Update the rumors. Change things up. Make sure the players know that the world is not waiting on them to do things.

Destroy Your Village: The small village Thomas comes from is an overgrown ruin. It was destroyed in a raid. Animals have taken over. How many times has a traditional Dungeons and Dragons campaign started in a small village that couldn’t handle a wild owlbear much less a powerful foe? When the players leave the village and if they ever return, have it destroyed. Showcase the power of something like a dragon or wizard who were something for something the characters were rumored to have left there in the past.

Places changes. People change. Settings change. Sink Waterdeep and think about how that changes the power structure in the north. Do the sea elves and merfolk take over the drowned ruins? Do aquatic dragons guard the still shielded libraries? Modern ruins are much more relevant to characters than ancient ones because there is a personal connection to them.

Vagabond has a lot going for it. If you’re one of those who picks up on different bits when you’re reading, it’s well worth the read.

Marco Polo: Season 2

Marco Polo is a fictional series on Netflix that gives its own spin to the time the "Latin" Explorer Marco Polo spent in the courts of Kublai Khan.



Below I'll be discussing some of the finer and lower points of the series and there will be plenty of spoilers so if you're the type of person whose enjoyment of a series, episode, life itself, is ruined by spoilers, turn away now! You shall not pass.

For everyone else, read on.

Marco Polo's first season, finished off with Kublai Khan in a great victory, in the defeating of the Southern China faction. In the dreaded real world, it was the Mongols who actually managed to unite China which had been divided for hundreds of years prior to their take over.

So what remains to be done?

In many ways, the second season of Marco Polo does smaller character work. Oh, there are still external threats but for the most part, the threats are brought on by internal strife. Some of these are well done and well rounded by others seem painfully obvious.

Above all though, the show engages the viewer through the characters. While the scenery and the costumes and the mix of high action and sex do help the sell, if the characters were not worth watching, the whole thing becomes an exercise in futility.

One of the things I enjoyed about a different cable series, Spartacus, was the character interactions. If you could draw out a flow chart of how the characters reacted to each other, you can almost instantly generate stories just by pulling on those connections.

Marco Polo, is much the same.

Kublai Khan: It all starts with the Khan of Khans. He's the centerpoint of the series in many ways. Don't let the view point of the series being named after Marco Polo divert you from who has the power in the series.

The actions of Kublai, reflect out from the center, creating ripples around the world. Sometimes these are not actions that would make a man proud.

For example, at the behest of his adopted son Ahmed, he kills the Southern Chinese Prince. This results in an uprising. He does this with no pleasure. He does this with no illusion as to what he is doing.

But he does it nonetheless.

His adopted son is known to have taken a concubine, Mei Lin. The Khan, to put it mildly, does not like her and ill uses her. The punishment to Mei Lin however, reflects poorly on Ahmed who is powerless before his Khan's actions and acknowledges that when the Khan makes mention of his deeds.

And there is the continued interaction with Marco himself. Despite Marco saving the Khan's life directly and uncovering vast conspiracies against the Khan, when delicate information makes its way to the Khan the the Khan knows Marco also shares? Well, the Khan decides perhaps (again) it's time that "the latin" and his usefulness have ended.

The Khan is a complex character and serving in his court is both boon and bane. His actions shake the land.

Chabi: The wife of Kublai Khan. While she does not wield a sword, she is capable of committing acts that others would consider monstrous. She is capable of making "the hard decisions."

Prince Jingim: The flesh and blood son of the great Khan. Due to the growing influence of China on the lifestyle and culture of the Mongols who live closer to China than Mongolia, Prince Jingim is often called "The Chinese Prince" and it's not a honorific meant to flatter. Rather, it's an insult. Jingim yields little apparent power and is almost too bland or normal. He loves his wife, he pays homage to his father. Initially in the first season, jealous of the attention his father lavished on Marco, he grows to treat Marco as a brother. His only flaw is that he's so honest he can't see the world about him in the negative and the webs that Chabi weaves around him in terms of politics, are not ones he would want himself.

Despite that though, he hints that he knows exactly what's going on when his fourth wife, the Blue Princess, becomes pregnant at just the right time. At a time when the legitimacy of the Khan is in question, the matter of heir becomes vital...

Kokachin, the Blue Princess: An imposter who lacks any power in the true sense of the word. She knows she is in a bad situation but even so, with a forced marriage to the son of the Khan, she strives to make peace with it. She strives to be a good wife.

It is not enough. One of the threads of the series is "the hard choice". Chabi decides that Kokachin will get pregnant and uses a man outside her husband to achieve this. Forced rape and carry of a child and it weights on Chabi.

It weighs more on Kokachin. There is a point in the series where it looks like the actual Blue Princess returns. Where this Blue Princess wants her life back.

But there is no real Blue Princess! It a hallucination and that the stress of rape, carrying an imposter's child, knowing that it's an imposter's child, and the potential consequences to come from that? Too much for her mind to handle.

And in looking at the links between characters, Chabi knows what must happen to keep the Blue Princess quite about the father. She also knows that Prince Jingim must never "officially" know no matter what he hints about.

Hundred Eyes: The mentor for all in the Khan's army in martial arts. He works for the Khan because Kublai put it bluntly. "Do my bidding or I'll destroy all of your art, history, and proof that your people ever existed." He falls into line and at some point even acknowledges the inevitability of serving the Khan because of the corruption of the old Chinese Emperor. He makes a reacquaintance in this second seasons and if you enjoy the old "Samurai Sundays" that included various Chinese Martial Art films, there are some great fight sequences that come out of these meetings.

Byamba: Bastard son of the Khan. He is married to a rival clan. He suffers quite a bit. He is much like Prince Jingim in that he's a relatively simple character to understand. He lives to live. He does not seek status or social improvement. He fights for his father because to him, it is the right thing to do.

Marco Polo: And the title character himself, Marco Polo. He seems to have a gift for stating the obvious and that may only be because he is the view point character and seeing things through his eyes gives us the advantage of sometimes seeing things as he sees them. For example, seeing that Ahmed is deliberately making bad decisions? That Ahmed is quickly reacting and threatening when those decisions are called out?

Macro is in a bit of a unique position. His training from the monk Hundred Eyes puts him well above a standard soldier, but he's not trained enough when facing individuals like Lotus, a former lover of Hundred Eyes who makes her introduction this seasons.

Marco is also in a bit of a dangerous position as when his father makes his way with an enemy army sent by the Pope, Marco goes out of his way to insure that his father survives the encounter. A fact that does not go unnoticed by the great Khan who adds it to the list of reasons to kill Marco.

If you enjoy shows like Vikings and have a Netflix account, Marco Polo is worth a watch. If you want to check it out on DVD, season 1 is available from retailers like Amazon for $19.96 right now.

Any fans of the series? Any favorite characters? Hopes for season 3?

Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell

Sharpe's Tiger pits a young Richard Sharpe against the Muslim ruler, the Tippoo, of Mysore. It's another strong entry in the series and for me, was a bit different in that this Sharpe is a little more raw, a little more untested, a little more friendless. While his skill set isn't in question, his lack of fine allies like the giant Harper in later volumes, does set the stage differently.

Bernard Cornwell makes India a fascinating and terrifying place. A land of different religions which the British use to their own advantage. In this it is different than other entries in the Sharpe's series as most often, the British are seen fighting fellow Christians.

Hero, the Tippo is a Muslim ruling over an Indian country. But he is a 'bad' Muslim in the novel in that he still pays heed to dreams and has soothsayers on staff in order to provide meanings to signs and portents.

As chronologically, this novel is set before ever other Sharpe novel I read, it was interesting to see Richard evolve. He's seen at heart as a 'good' person, but has a ruthlessness at his core that enables him to act in ways that the 'proper' officers and other individuals would not.

Colorful characters abound in the story. One of Shapre's foes, Hakeswell, had the honor of not dying from being hung and claims that he cannot die! He's also described as 'twitchy' from a disease that was cured with mercury. He's also always claiming "It's in the Scriptures!" for his foul behaviors.

These distinguishing features allow the cast to be more than just backdrops that Sharpe interacts with. They help give him direction and even when in opposition, help set the direction of the tale.

If you're looking for action filled historical adventure, Sharpe's Tiger hits the spot.

Now onto the ramblings!

One of the reasons I'm always advocating reading more, is that it increases your baseline of information. It allows you to enjoy connections that other people simply aren't going to see.

For example, the Tippo employees jetti. "The jettis were Hindus, and their strength, which was remarkable, was devoted to their religion."In the manga Berserk, there is a fantasy analog to parts of the middle east, like India, called Kushan. Among those in the ranks? Individuals that would be the jetti under any other name.

Having that reference allowed me to get an idea of what the jetti were capable of, and the Tippo here uses them as executioners in a horrific manner including breaking the necks of people like chicken's and driving nails into skulls and brains.

It's why, even as life gets busier and things at work get more hectic, I try to keep reading and try to keep reading a bit of a variety of materials. The larger your circle of reference points, the more interconnected things can be in your own mind if nowhere else.

The Tippo is also a 'tiger' man in motif and theme. Take for example, his unclaimed throne, the tiger throne. "...his throne, which was a canopied platform eight feet wide, five foot deep, and held four feet above the tiled floor by a model of a snarling tiger that supported the platform's center and was flanked on each side by four carved tiger legs. Two silver gilt ladders gave access to the throne's platform which was made of ebony wood on which a sheet of gold, thick as a prayer mat, had been fixed with silver nails. The edge of the platform was carved with quotations form the Koran, the Arabic letters picked out in gold, which above each of the throne's eight legs was a finial in the form of a tiger's head. The tiger heads were each the size of a pineapple, cast from solid gold and studded with rubies, emeralds, and diamonds...."

It's a long and glorious description of a truly masterwork of a throne. As a symbol, it's a powerful image. Much like George R. R. Martin and his now famed Game of Thrones and it's bladed throne. The imagery of tigers prevades the novel and gives this particular foe a specific theme.

When building enemies in your own games, or when making characters, think about having a particular motif. Is there a visual cue that your characters rely on that goes along with a name? Unique weapons and items?

Sharpe's Tiger also bring a different type of goal into the picture: Rescuing a well placed individual and delivering information back to the army.

In many ways, such a rescue is as old as a fairy tale: Rescuing a princess. Change the princess to a specific character with their own goals, motivations and other high end utility and well, you've got Sharpe's mission.

Having to recon the area and gather information is another part of the game.

Having goals that might be different than the standard, and having the opportunity to act on that information, can provide a bit more variety to a campaign that going into a dungeon and killing off all the monsters. You can go into the dungeon and kill off all the monsters for a specific cause!

Sharpe's Tiger is a solid historical adventure book and well worth a read if you're looking for something other than Sharpe fighting the French.

The Empty Throne: Saxon Tales Volume Eight by Bernard Cornwell

The Empty Throne is volume eight in the first person series The Saxon Tales by Bernard Cornwell. The series follows the adventures of a pre-united England through the eyes of pagan raised Uthred.

For those who've read the previous volumes, I'm sad to say, this will be a quick read. The writing flows smoothly with one event flowing into the next until the book is over and you're looking for the next chapter. It's like visiting old friends who may have a few new things to say but whose general personality and demeanor you're going to understand right away.

Uthred continues to make a great person to tell the tale. As a native of England captured as a young age and raised as a pagan, he worships Thor and knows the lore of the 'heathens' but he fights to protect the idea of England, of a united England, from these invaders.

Even as he does that, his very nature and demeanor make him an outcast among those he protects.

Other aspects of Uthred that are well done, include his level of competency. While he's a great swordsman, he's getting older, slower. While he's a great tactician and has cunning far above what his foes usually bring to the table, he doesn't allow for others to be as smart as he and sometimes falls prey to his own overconfidence.

Uthred starts off the novel still in pain from a wound inflicted upon him previously, but uses it to his own advantage, letting others think him weaker and closer to death then he actually is. It's cleverly done but Bernard Cornwell doesn't drag the recovery process out to the end of the novel.

Another unusual thing, is that Uthred is, among his other accomplishments, a father. His 'favorite' son is Uthred. If this wasn't a first person novel that might get a little confusing with two characters having the same name. His daughter, Stiorra, is someone he doesn't know.

Sadly, the reader's don't know her either because she quickly turns out to be quite an interesting character. Sent to a nunnery initially to learn the ways of the Christian God in order to better fit into the evolving society about her, Stiorra instead is much like her father, a pagan and one who is not afraid to get her hands bloody.

I say sadly the reader's don't get to know her because her role in this novel is relatively short and her future unknown to the reader in future volumes. Still, Bernard Cornwell has taken many threads of previous books and continued to weave them through current ones, including some methods of fighting that bring things full circle.

The book includes many of the hallmarks of a Bernard Cornwell book. There is conspiracy, alliances forged and broken, exploration of foreign lands, last minute saves and plans that go horribly awry. The action is fierce, The mood of another era.

If you're a fan of the History Channel's Vikings, The Saxon Tales should be right up your alley.

Reading and Reading Challenges

At the end of February, on the website XO Jen, a challenge was mentioned on the website: http://www.xojane.com/entertainment/reading-challenge-stop-reading-white-straight-cis-male-authors-for-one-year

One of the reasons she states that she started it, is that she needed to read more. Stephen King, in his excellent book, On Writing, discusses the need to read. That if you don’t read, you can’t write. You won’t have the tools for it.

In her readings, she found “I would come across stories that I didn't enjoy or that I actively hated or that offended me so much I rage-quit the issue. Go through enough of that, and you start to resist the idea of reading at all.”

I’m curious what she was reading that would cause such a misfiring of enjoyment of reading.

Her solution? “Instead of reading everything, I would only look at stories by women or people of color or LGBT writers. Essentially: no straight, cis, white males.” I am so unhip that I had to look up what a cis was and well, it’s apparently some weird code for “man.” As opposed to identifying as transgender male? I apologize for being so unhip.

The good news? For her, this worked. Again, without having any background of WHAT she was finding so bad and WHAT she was reading, hard to say where the actual change came into place. I know that when I read the dreaded generic fantasy, there are often times I'm like, “No, not another farm boy destined to save the world…”

The article discusses some more points, such as another author taking a similar challenge, reading only novels written by writers of color. That must have been a great delve in many ways because there are so often different realities then a “straight cis white male” goes through.

She does provide a nice list of books. This is handy because too often, I see a ‘challenge’, a call to arms if you will but it’s just some generic anger directed into the void to call for action as opposed to “and as a way to start, let’s look at this specific authors.”

But I don't find myself rising directly to the challenge.

Part of that is I already read a variety of authors. I'm not saying that it’s probably not slanted towards the dreaded cis white male but Lindsey Davis is not a man. Charles Saunders is not a white dude.

But somewhere in my brain, I’m trying to get to saying something intelligent and I think I’m failing.

Why do we read?

The author notes “If the majority of books being held up and pronounced Good and Worthy are by white, straight, cis men, it's easy to slip into thinking that most good and worthy books are by authors that fit that description.” But here’s the thing… if you read my blog, you'll probably spot some top ten movies, but top ten books? I'm unmoved by popularity. I still haven't read the novels of Stephen King’s the Dark Tower. I’m one of those weird people who owns more than they read due to yard sales, store closings, friend’s moving, etc…

But then there’s the whole why do we read thing?

Remember, her article initially starts off with the purpose of reading to fuel her writing.

I’m not that guy.

I think that the larger problem is that there’s literally too much to read.

Again I’m trying to make a point here but flailing about.

I have friends who are writers. They write to eat. They write to pay their bills. If all of the sudden everyone said, “Yeah, all of you independent writers who aren't on the best sellers list, well, you’re still white and straight and we're not reading you”, what happens to them?

Do you read to support a favorite writer?

I will to a point but that has to be earned. For example, as much as I enjoyed the first few books of The Wheel of Time and A Game of Thrones, I stopped reading when it became clear that the audience didn’t necessarily matter to the established writer, in a way that say, to a new writer, a hungry writer, one that was very actively involved with his fan base, matters.

This isn't some weird era where there needs to be barriers between the audience and the creator and if the creator isn't putting out the material the audience wants, but at the same time doesn’t need the financial support of the audience, let’s call it “I'll get around to it one day.” Much like Stephen King’s Dark Tower or Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. I'll get around to it one day.

Do you read to understand the genre better?

I ask this one because one of the reasons I read Lindsey Davis is she’s writing mysteries set in Ancient Rome. As someone who enjoys ancient history, I’m fascinated by how she portrays this ancient time. And how she mixes the historical with the detective side of things.

But…there is a collection of stories by author Manly Wade Wellamn, Who Fears The Devil. If you’re someone who enjoys role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons, it’s good to know who Manly Wade Wellamn is because he’s one of the cornerstones or one of the ‘inspirations’ to the original game.

The same could be said of C. L. Moore Jirelof Joiry. I've read the stories of Jirel several times. I find them terrible.

But they are foundation stories. They set the steps for things that come after. They are important because they are some of the first stories by a woman fantasy writer.

I could say similar things about the ‘grand dame’ of Science Fiction, Anne McCaffrey, whose works my opinion varies tremendously on because some I enjoy and some bore me. Or C J Cherryh who’s Gate of Ivrel, for me, easily stands the test of time.

These are stories that are important because the help everything that comes after.

But do they?

Do you read to learn a new skill? I recently bought two books on painting miniatures. One written by a Angel, a Spaniard, the other by aJBT, Frenchman. Are they ‘semi-white’?

If Jen Haley came out with a book on painting miniatures, just as I have done with her instructional video, I’d buy that in a heart beat. Appreciate technical skill where you find it.

Part of my wonder at some of the ‘anger’ I get from here comes from looking at the following, and maybe I’m reading it wrong, “After a year of that, the next challenge would be to seek out books about or with characters that represent a marginalized identity or experience by any author. In addition to the identities listed above, I suggest: non-Christian religions or faiths, working class or poor, and asexual (as a start).”

Maybe one of the reasons that best selling lists are topped by white csi males is that they are a good portion of the consumers? And that they don't feel the need to challenge and marginalize themselves when others are already calling them out for it?

I think there is an immense arrogance that white people throughout all of time are the same. I think that even now people think that white people in Britain and America are the same. Perhaps to a certain point we are.

But here’s one thing I'm trying to flounder out, trying to throw the idea on the table. Reading Shakespear is reading a white guy. It’s not the same thing as reading early Michael Moorcock despite the fact that again, it’s a white guy from England.

Reading C J Sansom and David Liss, both of who do historical. The former British, the later American. Their work has oceans between them in style, tone, tonality, and methodology.  

There are so many stories that I think sometimes there is a panic that those who want to write and have a working job with those slivers, are worried that they’ll be outshone. Just as many others, regardless of what their writing, are outshone.

So what’s my point?

Read more. This is probably the biggest thing. Having any conversation about reading challenges and reading lists and things to read in a year, can be downright silly if you buy twenty books a year and read two. There’s no conversation about expanding your reading horizon because you don’t have one.

Know why you’re reading. If you’re reading to support an author, do so. See if they are active on twitter. See if they have a forum. See if they have a facebook fan page. Keep up to date with their works. Promote them.

Be open to reading a variety of material. Someone may wonder what my point was if I was going to come back around to this. I've been trying to mention it before, but I read a lot. I’m not as well read as many. Let there be no illusions that I read everything and anything under the sun. A lot of what I read is indeed garbage fit for popcorn enjoyment levels.

But if someone says, “Charles Saunders new book is even better than Imaro!”, I'm on that. The thing is, I have the frame of reference that I know who Imaro is as a fictional character, and who Charles Saunders is as an author.

If you don't know who an author is that’s recommended, ask for more details. Explain who you currently read. Explain what you currently enjoy. Explain why you like it.

Promote! After expanding your horizons, tell others. Share your reactions. Expanded other people’s reading circles.

I’m sure I have failed to make a coherent point but I’m trying folks. Help me out here. Share the post, +1 the post, get some discussion going on. Help me flesh out what I'm trying to say in a manner that doesn't' sound crazy.

Spartacus: Character Study: Ashur

I've been watching Spartacus on Netflix.

I consider it a guilty pleasure.

One of the things I thought interesting, was how the different relationships and the different characters play off of one another on numerous levels.

Let's look at one of the 'bad' guys, Ashur.

Ashur is an Assyrian brought in with another Assyrian, Dagan. Of the two, Dagan is the superior warrior, but Ashur has value in that Dagan doesn't speak the local tongue and Ashur does. This allows Ashur some measure of diplomacy between Dagan and others.

Initially Ashur seems eager to honestly be a part of the 'Brotherhood' where the Gladiators respect one another.

Problem is that he doesn't earn it the way the other gladiators earn theirs.

See Ashur and others follow their master, loyaly, and do things that Gladiators aren't normally a part of. Something evil and sly, assassination for their lord and master.

The reward? The brand of the gladiator and the scorn of those gladiators at the same time.

Ashur's use in translations continues to be useful but at the same time, because Dagan is the superior combatant, Ashur, who wasn't accepted in the first place, continues to fall further and further behind in estimation. This causes Ashur to make some decisions that don't please Dagan.

Things continue to go south when in a duel, Ashur 'cheats' and winds up blinding Dagan in one eye.

It goes further south when later, in a duel against another house's gladiators, Ashur suggests an alliance between himself and Crixus against the champion of their own house. Crixus responds by slashing Ashur's leg and pushing him into flames resulting in Ashur's status becoming even lower.

But somewhere during that low period, Ashur puts to use his wits and takes bets and controls money. He also spies for his lord while in the city and spreads disinformation and fakes alliances with those who seek to bring his house down.

At one point, his owner values him so much that he declares that Ashur is no mere gladiator but almost like one of his lord's hands.

Of course things come crumbling down with the whole Spartacus rebellion thing mind you...

But Ashur survives that as well! Using cunning, he escapes his fate by hiding among the dead and even helping another survive the fall of the house.

And in so doing, is rewarded with a new master who demands Ashur remove his old brand. Never mind that this requires cutting off a nice chunk of skin with that brand and takes forever to heal. It also requires Ashur to prove his point that one gladiator is worth three soldiers when he is forced to fight for his live against soldiers, but while winning, wisely holds back from killing those he fights.

His street connections enables him to gather a crew of unique mercenaries and to be a valuable asset but all is set to waste for poor Ashur when he is accused of a crime he didn't actually commit and he winds up proving his loyalty one last time taking a message to Spartacus where his overconfidence in battle leads to him being slain.

Interestingly enough, while the series Spartacus doesn't delve too deeply into racial relations, the fact that Ashur was Assyrian is enough to poison the thoughts of the slaves when they encounter another Assyrian later on. It's a subtle dig at how racism, either between Gaul and Thracian, or between Celt and Gault, is portrayed in the series.

In looking at his motivations overall, I would throw the following on him.

Petty Ambitions: While there are some in the Spartacus series that have grand overpowering ambitions, Ashur's are much simpler. An easy life, wine, food, women, and whatever else it takes to survive.

Respect: Perhaps even his number one ambition. Ashur seeks to be champion, even when he knows not capable of it. He seeks to return to the arena and win respect, even disappointed as his master tells him that he's far too valuable for such a position.

Vengeful: Much of what Ashur does that is vile, including his treatment of Naevia, is in part a result of the way others have treated him. Most think that because Ashur is the least physical among them in terms of fighting prowess alone, that he is not worthy of consideration only to learn later on that he is a master manipulator.

Loyal: While I list it last, it's important to note that Ashur had opportunity to escape his circumstances on more than one occasion and made the decision to stick with his master at the time, even thought in the end, this results in his death.

By making Ashur more than just a mustache twirling villain, the writers of Spartacus give us a character whose motivations may be easy to see, but there are motivations nonetheless.

Were there any characters that stood out for other views of Spartacus? Any villains where you were like, "Man, I can't wait to see this guy get his!" or surprised at how they went?

The Vinland Sagas

I may have mentioned it in the past, but I try to read a little bit of this and that. I don't stick with just fantasy or space opera. When I was in college, I had a few classes on various bits of historical lore including some Shakespeare work. I find that it helps keep the mind engaged.

Recently I took the dive on The Vinland Saga because of the History Channel and it's Vikings series. I'm looking forward to season three hitting this February. There's also my enjoyment of Bernard Cornwell's series, Saxon Tales, the latest, the Empty Throne, having come out not long ago..

I made the mistake of reading the introduction and it's rammed with information. So much information. So much of it jumping from one point to the other with names and locations and weird things popping up that I thought I'd scribe a few down for those interested in names. Included at the end of the article. Also included some of the locations that are mentioned.

It's a feast of information but the context it comes in is relatively small. The bulk of the book isn't the story, it's about farms, it's about ships, it's about the historical research that went into the Vinland Sagas and trying to verify them.

It's almost hard to see how there's a manga called the Vinland Saga the cribs some names from this and then goes into some well illustrated highly unlikely bits. While I've heard some compare Vinland Saga to Berserk, there are no obvious supernatural elements in the volumes I've read. 

Have a list of names, locations, and weird bits!

People

Arnora, the daughter of Einar of Laugarbrekka, the son of Sigmund, son of Ketil Thistle who had claimed land in Thistilfjord. Aud the Deep-minded, daughter of Ketil Flat-nose, son of Bjorn Buna, wife of Oleif. Bjarni Herjolfsson

Eirik the Red

Freydis, daughter of Eirik the Red

Gudrid Thorbjarnardottri

King Olaf the peaceful of Norway

Leif Eiriksson the Lucky Oleif the White, son of King Ingjald, who was the son of Helgi, who was son of Olaf, who was son of Gudrod, who was son of Halfdan White-leg, king of the people of Oppland.

Rafarta, daughter of King Kjarval of Ireland

Snorri: Child born in America to Thorfinn Karlsefni and Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir

Svein Ulfsson, Danish King

Thorbjorg, a seeress who was called the 'Little Prophetess'. She was one of ten sisters, all of whom had the gift of prophecy, and was the only one of them still alive. Thorfinn Karlsefni

Thorstein

Thorvald

Locations

Brattahild

Breidafjord, customary way of describing people who are born in Iceland.

Dalir in the Breidafjord area

Drangar on Hornstrandir

Eiriksstadir in Haukadal, Iceland

Hebrides

Jaeren in Norway

Keel Point, a peninsula

Lysufjord in the western settlement of Greenland.

Skagafjord, Iceland

Random Bits

Find a beached whale: That's pretty damn random and I thought it worth cribbing down. Just goes to show that you never know what life is going to throw at you. The Vikings quickly make food out of it, cooking it right on the beach.

Rescue some people who have been shipwrecked. (Considered a lucky act): This is part of the culture. If you see people on a sinking ship, save them! Mind you depending on what type of raider viking you are, you might be enslaving them but better you than the sharks eh?

Skraelings: I've seen the name used before and honestly didn't remember that's what the vikings called the natives of the lands they encountered, including those in North America.

Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis: Home is where the Heart Is!

Fortune smiled on me! I managed to find a copy of Silver Pigs, the first book in the detective novels in Ancient Rome, for $1 off of the spinner rack at Half-Priced books.

This one is smaller than the second one I read, but the writing is still fantastic. Still reading it so this isn't a full on review of the book, but if you like a little humor and sarcasm in your first person mysteries, this is a solid novel.

No, rather, I wanted to quickly note that one of the things I enjoy about Lindsey's writing, is how Falco, the hero of the story, has a home and it's well, a slum. He frequently doesn't pay the rent and often makes an escape out of neighbors apartments of which he has an 'arrangement' with them.

The apartment itself though, does have a nice view of the neihborhood and can be advantageous when looking at the city as a whole.  Since it's in a bad part of town, this also lends some ambience to the character of Falco.

It's also where his family is and it allows him to mentor his nephew since his brother died in service to the Empire.

These touches provide more 'touches' if you will to the character of Falco.

In your own campaigns, where do the characters live when they're not in dungeons? Where do the characters go when they're not on the road? Do they have family and loved ones waiting for them in a prime city?

Things like this, these little touches of the bakers and sellers on the street, are reasons why I enjoy city sourcebooks like Waterdeep and the City State of the Invincible Overlord. When you can get the characters to invest in the city, to enjoy the city, to miss the view, to miss specific people, to wonder what's happening there right now, you've got them.

Make your cities interesting and the players will return to them. Make the players invest in them, and the players will fight to save them, even if they are saving the city from itself.

To Shield the Queen by Fiona Buckley

Here it is, 2015, and I'm still pretty much doing the same thing.

Still reading.

Still employed.

Still taking care of a sickly mother. Sigh.

I'm reading a few books right now. One of them, Black Swan, a book about highly unlikely events/things/happenings, is a book I've been reading on and off for months now. Another one, the Design of Everyday Things, was recommended by +Scott Rehm aka the Angry DM. It's an interesting book so far and good reading.

In terms of fiction, I just finished reading To Shield The Queen, a book set in Queen Elizabeth I's court. Written by Fiona Buckley, this is the first novel in a series of mysteries that introduces Ursula Blanchard, a woman of the court. There are over ten books in the series so far but alas, most of them go past my 'impulse buy' threshold in kindle format. They range from $5.99 to $15.99.

This is another of my $1 finds off the spinner racks of #HalfPriceBooks. It's another one that my mom initially read and I decided to snag it before returning it to the used bookstore. I figure might as well get the full dollar worth out of it.

What I'm going to say may sound contradictory but I found this an excellent example of a book written in the "tell not show" methodology. The good news though, is that the author has a good writing 'voice' if you will. Even when the author is telling us what the main character is telling the reader, it still moves quickly.

It's done in a way that prevents this 300+ page book from becoming a 400-500+ page book.

I will, if Half-Price willing, or Amazon Kindle hits up with the $1.99-$3.99 sales, be reading more of the series.

The author also includes her own research material into the era, which is always a nice tool to have for those trying to recreate the feel of a particular book they've read.

For those wondering about any gaming things I might have yanked from it as I read:

1. Female Main Character: I hate to say it, but I can recall too many conversations that tried to sideline female characters based on the pseudo historical context of a campaign setting. It's one of the reasons I'm always interested in seeing 'women warriors/queens' and other bits in that fields to show that there are always exceptions to the rules and when talking about player characters, they are by default the exceptions.

2. Multiple-Priorities: The main character, Ursula, is loyal to Queen Elizabeth. She is loyal to England. She is a woman in love. Her love is against the things she is loyal to. Ursula walks a fine line between defending the things she loves and the man she loves. While in the end she is true to queen and country, she is still tied to her love through binds of marriage as well as actual love. Fiona does a solid job of providing an antagonist that the protagonist doesn't want to kill but wants to overcome.

3. Family Live: I've mentioned it before, but the more hooks a character has in the campaign, the more ways the character can be drawn into the setting. In this instance, Ursula has a daughter, Meg, and relatives that 'took care' of her when she was young and her own parents dead. These elements come into play several times and work as not only active elements, such as when Ursula must save Meg, but as background elements as Ursula seeks a better future for herself in part to provide for her daughter. It's also a good way of siphoning off funds that don't involve the latest and great magic item or castle creation.

4. Religion: Always a touchy subject when it concerns real world religion, the degree to which people will go, then as in now, to spread their religion, is devastating to those who just want to go about their day to day business of survival. In some ways though, it's one of the problems with fantasy settings that have a pantheon. It's hard to picture an schism like that of Catholics and Protestants, especially when it was happening, occurring in a fantasy setting. While the Forgotten Realms did make a passing effort at such with the Dawnlord, as one deity of dozens of deities, the rest of the setting pretty much kept going the way it was going previously.

5. Henchmen: Ursula is a lady of court. As such, she is expected to have her own maid. She also has her own manservant. Both of these characters provide abilities and well, bodies in places when needed, to do the things that Ursula can't do because she's busy elsewhere. While the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is reknown for it's use of disposable henchmen, and the excellent adventures of +Brian Patterson and his webcomic d20 Monkey have brought us many an amusing illustration of disposable henchmen, here they are minor characters in their own right.

6. Investigation: Despite the era, despite death by smallpox to Ursula's husband before the story starts, despite her manservant being killed on the road by 'robbers', violence in and of itself is almost a secondary thing that happens in To Shield the Queen. Indeed, much of the action Ursula takes is to prevent violence. When looking at the arcs characters go through, are there any that can be designed on finding things out, rather then killing the orc to take his pie?

To Shield The Queen takes a historical event and twists it on its edge to give us a different look at how things might have rolled out.