'Zines

The first in a series of posts detailing what I am currently finding inspiring.

I. Zines

Zines were a big part of my early 90s high school experience, so it has been interesting to watch them make a comeback in recent years. If you're currently in the grips of Zine Mania--whether through nostalgia or first-blush contact with small press insanity--you NEED to check out the zines put out by Heretical Sexts.

Heretical Sexts is a small-press imprint dedicated to producing "weird words on dead trees" and "publications for discerning creeps." Full disclosure: I've contributed writing or editing to the various Heretical Sexts projects, but believe me when I tell you that these things are the real deal. The writing is out there; the voices in these zines are unique; the art and production values are all top-notch. Thus far there are three stand-alone issues you might want to grab:

My Dream Date with a Villain: 14 contributors describe their romantic encounters with infamous characters from history and fiction. Always humorous, sometimes horrific and occasionally erotic, this fully-illustrated volume includes a range of subjects including Elizabeth Bathory, Doctor Doom, Ilsa She-Wolf of the S.S., the Hamburglar, Madame Defarge, and many, many more. (Include my tale of longing for Bellatrix Lestrange.)

Forever Doomed: 28 pages of essays and comics by Tenebrous Kate taking a tongue-in-cheek look at all things doom: The Metal Mid-life Crisis of "Black Roses"; Adventures at Maryland Deathfest; Erotic Rites of the Nazgûl; Dennis Wheatley: Unlikely Icon; Style Lessons from "Curse of the Crimson Altar"; "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie."

Witch Women: Witch Women is an exploration of the many facets of the relationship between femininity and the occult. The zine features original art and essays ranging from the esoteric to the light-hearted: “Hag Couture,” cheeky advice on fashion and ritual realness by S. Elizabeth; “Ace of Worlds,” an encounter with the tarot by Tom Blunt; “The Scarlet Women,” an illustrated history of erotic magic written by Heather Drain and illustrated by Tenebrous Kate; “Darkening the Coven,” an RPG supplement by Jack W. Shear; Art by Dana Glover, Becky Munich, and Carisa Swenson. (I actually think "Darkening the Coven" is the best RPG thing I've written.)

At $5 a pop, these are a steal. The BigCartel shop is here. You know what to do. You know what to do.

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Speaking of zines, I just got these in the mail from Thuban Press:

If you like the idea of kinky post-scripts to Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Fall of the House of Usher," definitely do yourself a pervy favor and check out "In Pace Requescat" and "The Hideous Dropping Off of the Veil." For a more traditional and lovely take on a Victorian fairy tale, Julia Gfrorer's illustrated version of Oscar Wilde's "The Star Child" cannot be beat.

Actual Play: Blades in the Dark

In retrospect, Wolfram Keel probably looks a bit like Captain Flint on Black Sails

I had the good fortune to play in a Blades in the Dark game run by Andrew Shields of the Fictive Fantasy blog. Andrew has his play report up here.

Before I get into my experience with the game itself, I just want to take a minute to say that Andrew runs a great game. I have the quick start of Blades in the Dark, but I wasn't really able to put together how it all worked in my brief read-through of the text; Andrew, however, made the game sing in practice. He presented the mechanical bits in a really easy-to-grasp way and offered enough introductory guidance to help us along without ever feeling like he was nudging us in one direction or another. Andrew also added a ton of on-the-fly detail to the game's setting and NPCs that made the game have a very particular feel. People talk about immersion; Andrew's ability to add details that popped was all about getting the feel of the setting (weird, gritty, ominous).

My fellow player in the game was Bryan, and he pushed things forward into ever more dangerous territory at every turn (which was much appreciated by me). Bryan's character, Aldo Nyman, had all the social skills mine lacked; yet, despite our different skill sets we both chose "Daring" as our special abilities. This emphasis on "daring" came to define our new crew of thieves: we were looking to make a name for ourselves by taking on jobs (and approaching the way we completed job) in audacious ways that more careful crews would never even consider. My character, Wolfram Keel, was a weathered, perpetually furious ex-whaler whose skills leaned toward violence and skulking about. He may have killed an experienced duelist with a gaff hook in a water closet; Aldo may then have taken the dead man's identity so we could pull off an abduction. These are our unrecommendable methods, but they work.

I was impressed by how brisk the pacing is in Blades in the Dark. In a three hour session we generated our characters, generated our gang of thieves, went on two "heists," and did two episodes of downtime. The heists were short, but fulfilling. Our first adventure was kidnapping the leader of a powerful faction; through Aldo's guile, Wolfram's willingness to step into the fray, and a little help from our weirdo occult adept minions we were able to pull off a pretty amazing score. The second heist involved sneaking onto a whaling ship in plain sight so that we could steal away with some rather unusual gunpowder stored in a literal hog's head. 

Oddly, or maybe not, our most nail-biting encounter in the entire session was with a sexed-up harpoonist who probably isn't even human; let's just say she has scrimshaw teeth, has a penchant for looking into the depths of murderous souls, and has an arm made of bone that was animated by plunging it into a leviathan's eye. Not the kind you take home to mother.

Even though each heist didn't take long to resolve, they felt meaty and compelling. There wasn't really any lull in the game where we planned out our strategy and prepared for contingencies. The way the game works lets you largely accomplish all of that on the fly, adding detail and depth through action and flashbacks. It felt like we got an amazing amount of fun gaming in within just three hours. In other games I've played there are interminable stretches were you're waiting for the fun parts; this was all good parts all the way through. Part of that was undoubtedly the people involved (thanks again, Andrew and Bryan), but part of it was the tight design of the game. Blades in the Dark seems like a clear winner; can't wait to play again.

Poe's Philosophy of Composition and Campaign Setting Delivery

art by James Carling

I've published three system-neutral setting books at this point: Planet Motherfucker, Ulverland, and Colonial Ethersea. Each one of those books is small; they're all trade paperback format and the longest is under sixty pages. They're calculated to fit within my personal preferences: concise over compendious, flavorful rather than all-encompassing, lots of "holes" to be filled in as you want instead of completely defined.

Essentially, the kind of setting material I value fits into the theory of writing that Edgar Allan Poe outlines in his essay "The Philosophy of Composition." Although Poe was addressing what he valued in literature, it's a pretty good fit for explaining what I value in setting products. Poe's essay outlines three central tenets of literary composition:

Length
As Poe states in "The Philosophy of Composition," "It appears evident, then, that there is a distinct limit, as regards length, to all works of literary art — the limit of a single sitting — and that, although in certain classes of prose composition, such as 'Robinson Crusoe,' (demanding no unity,) this limit may be advantageously overpassed, it can never properly be overpassed in a poem." Clearly, Poe favors shorter literary works--works that can be consumed within "the limit of a single sitting." To Poe's mind, the immediacy of a short story trumped the expansiveness of a novel. (This is also evident when you consider the typical length of his own literary productions.)

For me, the best settings are ones that I can digest in a single sitting. I'm currently dipping into the Eberron campaign setting, and honestly there is no way I could read that hefty tome in one go. It also points to a matter of subjective taste: I prefer my settings sketchy, with room to improvise. A setting that takes more than one sitting to read through will always be too developed, or too large, to interest me fully.

Method
Poe took issue with the artistic myth-making perpetrated by the Romantic poets. According to authors like Wordsworth and Coleridge, the archetypal Romantic was someone who would retreat into nature, become inspired by the natural world because of their rarefied aesthetic sensibilities, and experience a "spontaneous overflow of strong feelings" that would be recorded as poetry. This spontaneous overflow was supposedly the raw lyricism of the Romantic poet, unleashed from the confines of the rational mind; but Poe knew better. Although the Romantics captured their impressions as they occurred, they were also ruthless editors who produced draft after draft as they polished their work before presentation. The myth of the perfect first draft as the shining evidence of the poet's soul is just public relations.

Or, as Poe would have it, "Most writers — poets in especial — prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy — an ecstatic intuition — and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes, at the elaborate and vacillating crudities of thought — at the true purposes seized only at the last moment — at the innumerable glimpses of idea that arrived not at the maturity of full view — at the fully matured fancies discarded in despair as unmanageable — at the cautious selections and rejections — at the painful erasures and interpolations — in a word, at the wheels and pinions — the tackle for scene-shifting — the step-ladders and demon-traps — the cock’s feathers, the red paint and the black patches, which, in ninety-nine cases out of the hundred, constitute the properties of the literary histrio." The value for campaign products is evident here as well: as much as I like seeing an explosion of inspiration, I want that inspiration to be tempered by well-chosen edits and a serious consideration of how all the setting elements cohere together.

Unity of Effect
Taking his poem "The Raven" as a paradigmatic example, Poe argues that all great literature should strive to express one feeling or atmosphere. Everything within the work--characters, tone, word choice, setting, symbolism, etc.--must work in orchestrated unity to produce a singular effect for the reader.

A good setting, in my estimation, does one thing only but does that one thing well. There's a reason why kitchen-sink settings are sometimes maligned; in attempting to be everything to everyone, they're often rendered bland in the process. My preference is for a setting that has one theme or feeling or aesthetic experience writ large.

Magic Summary for Beyond the Wall

I found myself wishing there was a summary of all the cantrips, spells, and 1st level rituals in Beyond the Wall (with governing attributes for cantrips and rituals, no less), so I made one for myself. Maybe this will be helpful to you too.

Magic

Cantrips

• Beast Ken – speak with animals (Wis)
• Blessing – gives a bonus to rolls for a specific task (Wis)
• Conjure Sound – create illusory sounds (Int)
• Druid's Touch – make plants grow (Wis)
• Hexing – gives a penalty to rolls for a specific task (Wis)
• Glamour Weaving – create silent images (Int)
• Mage Light – create light (Int)
• Second Sight – see spirits and command them if you know their true name (Int)

Spells

• Abjuration – banish a spirit
• Banish Undead – make undead creatures flee
• Bar the Way – magically lock a door or gate
• Blight of Loneliness – victim fails all Charisma checks
• Brave the Flames – gain immunity to fire
• Burning Hands – flames leap from your hands
• Call the Swarm – summon a swarm of small animals
• Commanding Word – force the victim to obey an order
• Clear Eyes – you can see through all illusions
• Conjure Darkness – creates impenetrable darkness
• Entanglement – the victim is held fast
• Evade the Dead – you are invisible to the undead
• False Friend – bend the victim to your will
• Feather Fall – save the recipient from a dangerous fall
• Flame Charm – control fire
• Flash of Brilliance – blind everyone nearby
• Forgetful Mind – cause the victim to forget almost everything of importance
• Friend's Call – alert your allies to your location
• From the Brink – stabilizes a dying creature
• Great Endurance – fill your companions with vigor; ignore fatigue and poison
• Greater Illusion – create audio and visual illusions
• Healing Touch – heal wounds
• The Howling – create a deafening cacophony
• Inspiration – give allies a bonus to attacks and saving throws
• Magic Missile – cause damage at a distance
• Masked Image – appear as someone else, but not a specific individual
• Mystical Shield – gain a bonus to your armor class
• Obscurement – become hazy and difficult to see
• Opening Touch – open an ordinary door or lock
• Pass Without Trace – leave no tracks that can be followed
• Petrifying Gaze – freeze the target in place
• Phantom Skill – grant the recipient a skill for a limited time
• Reanimation – create skeletons and zombies from corpses
• Sanctuary of Peace – make it difficult for others to attack
• Sense Nature – sense supernatural influence and general disposition
• Silence – create an area of utter silence
• Smuggler's Luck – one item in your possession becomes undetectable
• Spider Climb – the target can scale surfaces
• Swift Step – gain unnatural speed and grace
• Terrifying Presence – cause fear in your enemies
• Tinker's Gift – mend a broken object
• True Strike – gain a bonus on your next attack roll
• Veil of Sleep – put the target to sleep
• Web – fill an area with sticky webbing
• Whispering Wind – send a message to another person
• Wild Call – summon animals
• Wind Ward – make an area immune to missile attacks and flying creatures
• Witch Laugh – cause the target to be distracted and incapacitated by laughter
• Word of Courage – you and your allies immune to fear

Rituals

• Arcane Experiment – determine the properties of a magical item (Int)
• Bind Familiar – summon a familiar spirit (Int)
• Circle of Protection – create a barrier against supernatural creatures (Int)
• Gather Mists – fill an area with blinding mist (Int)
• Goodberry – create berries that heal when eaten (Wis)
• Mage Armor – grant yourself magical protection from damage (Int)
• Staff of Might – enchant a weapon (Wis)
• Steed of the Sorcerer – summon a ghostly steed (Int)
• Unseen Servant – summon an invisible spirit to perform tasks (Int)
• Witch's Watchman – create a warding alarm against ambush (Int)
• Wizard's Mark – inscribe a permanent rune on a surface (Int)

Undead Templates for 5e

I wanted to make an undead wizard for 5e that was less powerful than the lich, so I sat down with the Dungeon Master's Guide and went to work with the monster creation rules. Aaaaaaaand, I promptly got bored because it was too much accounting and looking things up on a chart for me.

And then I realized that all I really needed to do was slap a few resistances and immunities on one of the NPC wizard statblocks in the back of the Monster Manual and call it a day. 

Using the cheap-n-cheerful templates below you can make undead archmages, bandits, cult fanatics, gladiators, etc. Need an undead knight that is less powerful than the death knight? Major Undead template + Knight stats. Undead viking? Minor Undead + Berserker. 

You could also use these with regular animals, you know, for when you need a ghostly Killer Whale.

Minor Undead
Damage Resistances necrotic
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Major Undead
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Incorporeal Undead
Damage Resistances acid, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities cold, necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft.

Gothic Victoriana Names

Might be helpful for naming your next character too.

The 14 Best Books I Read in 2014

Hanns Heinz Ewers, Alraune
At noon the silver tears that the clouds wept on their green leaves sparkled like polished moonstones. It was there where the pale snow of acacias lay, where now the luburnum drops its poisonous yellow, that I discovered the great beauty of chaste sin. And, sisterkin, it is thus that I learnt to understand the passions of saints.

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Daniel Mills, Revenants
At last she sleeps and the colors swoop to cover her. Copper. Crimson. Driftwood brown. Wide wings converge beneath her body, bearing her upward into the opening they create above her, a cone-shaped hollow formed from pure color, paper veils like spider’s silk. She floats, weightless upon the rising blood-tide, adrift in a void that seethes with silent voices.

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Deborah Lutz, Pleasure Bound: Victorian Sex Rebels and the New Eroticism
Pornography was scribbled by being passed from hand to hand, yielding a text written by six or more fellows. They read aloud to each other, sometimes they had sex with each other. Collaboration involved tenderness, often caresses, sometimes fierce competition. The fact that so much influential work on sex was done in this wise—as gestures of love—seems to me a useful discovery. … I was watching a modern approach to sexuality get hammered out through acts of intimacy.

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Brian May et al, Diableries
No example text needed; an image will suffice:

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Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling (ed.), Queen Victoria's Book of Spells
You don’t need to know what you’re saying for the thing to work—I declaimed the poems and watched the shadows boil.

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Horace Walpole, Hieroglyphic Tales
The king insisted that his eldest daughter should be married first; and as there was no such person, it was very difficult to fix upon a proper husband for her.

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Joseph Delaney, The Last Apprentice series
And as for the Devil, well, I used to think that evil was more likely to be inside each one of us, like a bit of tinder just waiting for the spark to set it alight.

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Oliver Potzsch, The Hangman's Daughter
Rumors of witchcraft and diabolical rites spread faster than the odor of excrement in a small town like Schongau.

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Paul Leppin, Severin's Journey into the Dark
The blind and malignant rage of solitude flared in Nathan’s voice, poison seethed in it that laid waste to the hearts of the crippled and deranged, hatred for the world. He preached wrathful disbelief in the good and splendor of the earth, the merciless score of an insolent blasphemer.

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Philip Reeve, Larklight series
Among my mother’s books I had once discovered a volume of stories by a gentleman named Mr Poe … There was one, The Premature Burial, which gave me nightmares for weeks after I read it, and I remember thinking that there could be no fate more horrible than to be buried alive, and wondering what type of deranged and sickly mind could have invented such a tale. But as I lay there immobilised in a jar on the wrong side of the Moon with only a ravening caterpillar for company I realised that Mr Poe was actually quite a cheery, light-hearted sort of chap, and that his story had been touchingly optimistic.

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Colette, The Vagabond
Faith, that is what it is, genuine faith, as blind as it sometimes pretends to be, with all the dissembling renunciations of faith, and that obstinacy which makes it continue to hope even at the moment of crying. ... There is no doubt that, if ever my heart were to call my master Chance by another name, I should make an excellent Catholic.

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Stephen King, The Gunslinger
The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which streched themselves on the horizon and the devilgrass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death.

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Philip Pullman, The Amber Spyglass

Will and Lyra felt a succession of cold, delicate brushing sensations as the ghosts passed through their bodies, warming themselves on the way. The two living children felt that little by little they were becoming dead, too; they hadn’t got an infinite amount of life and warmth to give, and they were so cold already, and the endless crowds pressing forwards looked as if they were never going to stop.

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Molly Tanzer, A Pretty Mouth

Really, who didn’t write poetry these days—and yet he alone was punished for the crime of artistic expression! How could he have anticipated that, at Wadham, admiring one’s betters through verse would be viewed as some gross sin, akin to shitting on the Bible or poisoning an especially cherubic child?