Recent Arrivals: Conventional Wisdom

I'm not a gaming addict! I'm an enthusiast!

 So, in the past few months I've attended not one but two conventions. That's a rarity because I don't like to travel. But I only really had to travel for one of them.

Gary Con in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is a celebration of the life and works of Gary Gygax, and is situated in the Grand Geneva Lodge on the outskirts of town (formerly the Playboy Resort). It's a great, small, old-school convention, and gives me a chance to see old friends who live in the area and/or attended. I really like it.

NorWesCon in Seatac, by the airport, just across the valley from Grubb Street, is a premiere SF convention. I don't fit as neatly into the SF community as I do into the gaming universe, but if they invite me (and provide parking) I'm happy to show up. Really good panels, good company, and good discussions.

Anyway, as a result of all this, I have another huge honking load of games that I've acquired. Some are convention purchases. Some are things that I've not found elsewhere. Some are gifts. Some are fulfillments of Kickstarters. I'm going to TRY to be brief on this, skimming over them, but here goes (spoilers: I fail in this in a major fashion, do buckle up). Here goes:

Black Flies by Jordan Dube, Goosepoop Games, 52-page saddle stitched booklet, 2026, Kickstarter. So the spouse of a co-worker worked on this one, so when it popped up, I took a chance on it. It is a non-standard format (opens vertically as opposed to horizontally, like a small calendar) and a non-standard game format in that it lacks a "GM" in the traditional sense (it does have a "Facilitator" in that someone has to know the rules). You're a group of cultists working together to immanentize the eschaton (fulfill the bidding of an Elder God) while having your own goals enhanced without letting the other players catching on. I've been in meetings like this.

Elemental Storm Free Adventure by Michael Putlack et al, Roll For Combat, 12-page digest-sized saddle stitched, 2026, Gary Con (Shadowdark booth). The folks at Shadowdark have been OGLing their game in such a fashion that other groups have been making their own materials for the game. This one is from Roll for Combat, which has been doing monster books for Pathfinder and D&D, and has a Kickstarter out with three volumes of critters. This particular pamphlet has a handful of critters from the book and a short adventure. 

Secret of the Skullhead Key by Jon Hage, Sleeping Giant Games, 56-page digest-sized softbound, 2025, Gary Con. Sleeping Giant's Woven Worlds products were wonderfully-presented products, and this is no different. It's a shortish 5E adventure where the heroes search for the aforementioned Skullhead Key. And of course others are looking for it as well. Closes up the adventure by saying it can be used as a prequel to their Hamil's House of Oddities, so think of this as a prequel. There are a couple games I call out for their elegant simplicity in their layout, and this is one of them.

Down Among The Dead by Luke Stratton, Limithron, 146-page digest-sized hardbound, 2025, Gary Con, and Leviathan, Christian Eichhorn, 46-page digest-sized saddle stitched, 2025 Gary Con (Limithron booth). Of the Mork Borg family of games (pronounce Murk Bori, but no one does in North America), Pirate Borg is a favorite. While both the original and this volume are descendants of the original Mork Borg, they lean more towards the informational as opposed to the artistic. It has a lot of the same graphic characteristics as MB (variety of fonts, different page layouts and colors), but does not go overboard. Anyway, Down Among the Dead delves further to the eldritch horror side of the high seas in a William Hope Hodgson way, with Deep Ones, vampire-crewed ships, and Davy Jones Locker (For what happens after you drown). Leviathan treads some of that same territory from a different designer, in a hexcrawl oozing with mythos and the rise of the Kraken God. This one will require a more patient reading, since it embraces the chaotic art graphic nature of Mork Borg (yeah, I'm going to sound like an grognard here, but black on yellow type is a pain for these old eyes). 

Cosmic Dark by Graham Walmsley, Thieves of Time, 192-page digest-sized hardbound, 2025, Kickstarter. Weird horror in space. This was a whim purchase, and it looks real interesting. It forgoes the traditional character creation mini-game, in which  you have to figure out who you are, what your ethos is, and and what trinket you have before moving into the first room of the dungeon. Instead, it throws us In media res, dropping down on an asteroid in a shuttle. What are your skills? Where are you from? What is your relationship to the other character? We're going to fill in over the course of the first adventure as we go along. It's an interesting approach to starting a game. The adventure itself is weird (strange stuff) and SF (other planets) and horror (think Alien exploring the ship before the xenomorph gets loose). Looks very intriguing. 

Dungeon World by Sage LaTorra and Adam Koebel, Burning Wheel, 408-page digest-sized softbound, 20212, NorWesCon (Around the Table booth). So at NorWesCon I sat on a panel on Indie versus Trad games, and it was very good and gave me a lot to think about. And one of the games that came up was Dungeon World, which I then purchased from Around the Table (a Lynnwood shop) in the dealer's area. This one of the early Powered by the Apocalypse games, and it's about time I did a dig into it. The book itself is larger than most of the more recent PbtA games, but that makes sense given the larger scope it seems to entail (lotta spells and creatures).

Tower of Gygax by Diverse Hands, 44-page saddle-stitched book, Gary Con, 2026. Every year at Gary Con, Curtis Cable, Josh Popp, and their posse run a continual game at the end of one of the hallways at the Grand Geneva. Eight players at a time, rotating DMs pulled from experienced game masters and recruited old guys (that's where I come in), a grab-bag full of encounters. And they collect those encounters into a booklet for the DMs to work off of. It's a nice little collection. 

Bayt Al Azif issues 4, 5, and 6, Edited by Jared Smith, 103- to 124 page squarebound magazines, 2022-2025, Amazon. I picked up 1, 2, and 3 a while back. Time passes, and I noticed that three more issues have come out. And these are nice, thick magazines that have articles on mythos subjects (like a tour of the mythos solar system), interviews, histories of the various Cthulhoid publishers, adventures (Pirates, Madrid in the 2nd of May uprising (1808)) and a lot of updates of what the various publishers have been working on since the last issue, which is good for making folk aware of what's out there. The site for the magazine is here.

Madness at Geneva Lake by Luke Gygax and Alyssa Faden, Gygax Ink,68-page squarebound, 2025, Gary Con (Gary Con Merch). Lake Geneva, Wisconsin is a perfect place for Call of Cthulhu and other eldritch horrors. We have sanitariums, old buildings, lake monsters, a nearby observatory, rich people's mansions, sunken steam ships, a statue of a comic-page character near a gazebo, and a former quirky RPG company. I used the town as inspiration for my game of Brindlewood Bay. Gygax and Faden use the sanitariums and the fate of the Lucius Newberry (a steamship that was raised from its watery grave by TSR, but that's another tale). Looking forward to running this one. 

Full Speed Ahead by Larry Larkin, 228 page hardbound, 2020, Lake Geneva Museum. And tied into the previous entry, I picked up a book on all the big lake ships that Lake Geneva hosted over the years. The Lake Geneva Museum is based in the old electric plant at the outlet of the lake into the White River. The museum has a nice display for TSR covering its early history, and a large area of all things Lake Geneva. This sort of local history has a lot of promise for adventures. Oh, right, the book! I love this volume, which goes into detail of the various steamships that made Lake Geneva their home (including the Lucius Newberry) along with profuse illustrations and photos. It would be great source material for a Call of Cthulhu game. Oh, wait, someone has already done that. 

Mystified! by Fleur and Chelsea Sciortino, The Wanderer's Tome, 152-page hardbound, 2025, Kickstarter. This is an expansion for Flabbergasted, one of those favorite games that I may never truly play - a Wodehousian romp of societal foibles and slamming doors. Mystified! takes it in the direction of the cozy mystery, with some more applicable character classes for the genre, as well as a small town and a foreign port of entry. I really like the presentation and art on this, and want to take the mechanics itself out for a spin. 

The Faerie Ring: Along the Twisting Way Campaign Guide, Scott Gable et al, Zombie Sky Press, 334-Hardbound, 2018, NorWesCon (gift of the publisher) Many years ago I wrote a forward for this book, and while I did get a pdf copy, I never got the print copy. Ran into Scott Gable at NorWesCon and he gave me a hard copy. It has taken D&D along time to get around to the Fey Folk - we had a scattering of monsters in 1st edition, then packed them off to Arvandor in the 2nd, Then made Faerie a parallel material plane in 3rd before finally settling on the Feywild as a separate entity in 4th. In this volume we see the Preternatural Planes as a large, encompassing plane with a wide variety of creatures and lords, which are detailed within. The designer mentioned getting back into game design, and, given the strengths of this product, I hope he does. 

Wildspace Magazine Issue 5: It Came from Beyond the Moons, edited by David Shepheard, The Piazza, 80-page saddle stitched magazine, 2026, Gary Con (gift of the publisher). One of things that amazes and delights me are that games and settings I wrote half a billion years ago still have enthusiastic fans who are creating new material. Case in point: Wildspace Magazine for Spelljammer, which has had a lifespan far beyond its life as an official setting. And their creators always manage to get a copy of the latest into my hands at Gary Con (Thanks, folks!). This thick, glossy magazine  has new ships, new crystal spheres, new ways to handle situations in space, and (to my surprise) has an article by DRAGON magazine editor Roger E. Moore on dealing with Fireworlds in a universe of combustible phlogiston. Ah, this is great. 

Coriolis: The Great Dark by Kosta Kostulas, Nils Karlen, and Martin Grip, Free League, 308-page hardbound, 2025, Kickstarter fulfilled at Gary Con, 2025. So I kickstarted this, but I must have missed a memo somewhere, because I never got a copy when it fulfilled. Fortunately, when I was at Gary Con, Free League had a booth and handed over a copy of this and Flowers of Algorab, and ticked my name of the the "too be delivered" list. And let me be clear - Free League produces some of the most beautiful RPG volumes today. And this one, a descendent of an earlier Coriolis product from 200 in-game years before, has more than just a touch of Spelljammer to it, based on a central hub (Ship City instead of the Rock of Bral) and tasks the players with exploring out a hostile and unknown universe. Like I said, beautiful appearance, exciting universe. 

Coriolis: The Flowers of Algorab by Kosta Kostulas, Nils Karlen, and Martin Grip, Boxed setting: 192-page squarebound book,  40-page saddle stitched booklet, Counter shield, 9 map sheets of various types, Counter sheet, 12 dice, card deck, 2025 This is a boxed set adventure for the Coriolis game, sending the explorers out into the wild. The set include cards and customized dice, though regular dice can be used, a thick adventure book, and a summary book for the players. OK, let's see what's in there. 

Mythic Carpathia by Johan Egerkrans and diverse writers, Free League 136-page hardbound, map, Gary Con (Free League Booth), 2025 I mentioned that  Free League makes some beautiful books, right? This is one of them. The initial Vaasen was made for a Scandinavian setting, but this volume sends us across Europe to the Carpathian mountains of Central Europe. So we're talking about vampirs, golems, and Baba Yaga in a campaign based out of  Prague. It looks beautiful and fitting to the era it takes place. My only gripe is that I need a pronunciation guide to wrap my lips around some of the monster names. 

The Sutra of the Pale Leaves: Carcosa Manifest, by Demon Lang, Andrew Logan Montgomery, Jason Sheets, and Yukihiro Terada, Chaosium,192-page hardbound, 2025. This is the second of two-volume set dealing with the King in Yellow invading 1980s Japan. This summarizes the Cthulhu rules in Japan in the earlier book, then launches into 4 additional adventures that can either be run separately or as part of a larger campaign. I don't know if I going to run this one, but it looks nicely meaty (and I have a couple colleagues who spent time in Japan teaching English, so I'd be interested in seeing how their experiences line up).

The Kingdom of Keshanar: Sourcebook for the World of Orthane, Volume 1: Keshanar by David Hadden, Orthane Productions, 512-page hardbound, 2026. This is a heavyweight. I Kickstarted it but got a signed copy early at Gary Con since they had a booth there. This and the Coriolis put my luggage at a scale-tipping 49 lbs. This is a massive tome showcases the Mythical Cairo equivalent with pyramids, sphinx monuments, and floating monoliths. The setting is heavily dominated by its meddling gods, such that NPCs are identified by which god they venerate. It's a major, epic work, and may be ultimate statement on an ancient Egyptian campaign.

Tour De Lovecraft: The Destinations by Kenneth Hite, Atomic Overmind Press, 318-page hardbound, 2021. I purchased this at a booth at NorWesCon that was selling t-shirts and Cthulhian hot sauce. I had picked up the first volume (The Stories) years ago, and what sure that I still had it on my shelves at home. Of course, I no longer had it, so I resolved to pick up another copy the next day, only to discover that it had sold out. Anyway, the book is a incredibly nice journey through the Lovecraftian atlas. Lovecraft has the rep for being a friendless, lonely recluse, but actually he was fairly well-traveled, kept a lively correspondence with other writers, and had an interest in such alien landscapes as Antarctica, the Dreamlands, Ancient Egypt, and Vermont. Hite lines up Lovecraft's journeys with his publication timeline to show how his interests evolved over time. Eminently browsable. Now I have to track down the first volume.

Dice: Fanged Smileys, Gary Con, Black Oak Workshop, Gift of Lester Smith, and Official Gary Con Dice, Gary Con Merch Booth. As a guest, I got a couple tokens to spend at the Gary Con Merch Booth. But no change would be given, so after purchasing the Cthulhu adventure above, I picked up a set of logo dice with the change. The fanged smiley is a trademark of designer Lester Smith, and being Lester, of course, he included a minigame with the dice. Cool beans. 

TSR Alumni Souvenir, put together by Tim (Ollie) Calhoun, Gary Con. One of the highpoints of Gary Con is the TSR Alumni gathering, which is [redacted time] at [redacted location]. A lot of the old TSRites who live in the area show up, including ones that are not attending the convention itself. It's a great chance to connect and reflect with people I worked with 30+ years ago. Ollie had in the past had drink tokens made with poker chips, and not everyone used theirs in order to keep them as souvenirs. So he had a souvenir version made with leftovers from the previous year. Which in my case now rests over my desk, next to my Wizkids Galactus that I worked on and my "Another One of Jim Ward's Many Victims" button. Thanks, Ollie.  

Gary Con XVIII notebook and pen: Because you can always use another lined notebook. 

OK, that's it. I've spent too long going through this, and may have finally hit gaming tsundoku. I have enough books and games to spend several months just going through them and absorbing their rules, examining their potentials and maybe even running a few of them. So I don't need any more games at the mome...

Hang on, there's another delivery at the door. More later,

Meanwhile, 40 years ago:

Now you have the song caught in your head. You're welcome.

More later,

Mad City

A shining city on the hill. But, with more snow this time of year.

I'd like to talk briefly about the geography of protest.

I've been seeing a lot more press about the Wisconsin protests, as the behemoth of the media realizes that there is something going on here, and the numbers have kept growing, giving them a chance to catch up.

But I haven't seen anything on how Madison itself is the perfect place for such a protest as you've been seeing.

Downtown Madison Wisconsin is squished between two lakes (Mendota and Menona). Drawn a line from the SW to the NE. That is the isthmus, which also name of the student newspaper at the UW. It is also probably the only place you're going to use the word "isthmus" north of Panama.

Now at the SW end of the line is the University of Wisconsin. That's a great place to gather a protest group - large amount of open space, good parking, lot of students. Then we move Northeast, up State Street. State Street itself is closed to street traffic (they have buses), but it a general path that leads uphill gently and directly from the UW in a straight line. So we can LFG in the UW and proceed directly to the capitol building, which is perched on the highest point of land on the Isthmus. And they can see us coming. Oh, and its a short walk as well.

State Street's nature changes as we move uphill to the the shining citadel on the hill. Close to the university, we have a lot of college-supporting stores (bookstores, souvenirs, bars), which give way to more boutiques and specialized shops, such as The Sacred Feather (a hat store) and the legendary Pegasus Games. Then things fall away dramatically when we reach the square the capital in on itself.  By time we get here (and I'm reporting from the 80s and 90s), there are a lot of empty storefronts and former stores repurposed to other activities. How depressed is the real estate around the capital? Capital City Comics great comic book shop was situated for many years a block NW of the capitol. And as we know, comic book shops don't necessarily thrive in high-rent districts (but that is a rant for another day).

I was surprised to hear about Ian's Pizza feeding the protesters, not because a place was supporting the Unions (most of the businesses along State are festooned with signs supporting the protesters, who as stopping in and BUYING stuff) but because we had a functioning pizza place so close to the capital. So things may be perking up in the area. 

A view of the dome you aren't getting.

Then there's the building itself. It is beautiful structure, and it is clear that the protesters, despite their passion and numbers, love it as well (That 7.5 million in damage from occupation? Yet one more lie. Pile it on the others over there). Its central cupola is brilliant, and its cross galleries (perfect places to show signs) ring the central well. It is probably the best state capital building in the US, and one of the most beautiful public spaces in the country outside of Washington DC.

I should mention the cops. Despite often comical attempts to portray the protesters as violent union goons, the local cops have been both present and supportive of the protests. These are guys, though, that are used to students burning couches in the street after the big game. When UW wins. So in comparison, 100K average Joes is not such a problem.

So to recap: I can form a march at UW, go uphill to the Capitol Building without screwing up too much traffic, catch a bite on the way up and protest in a wide square surrounding the building (which normally on weekends is used for a Farmer's Market). And the building itself is very conducive to holding the people (Protip: also has nice public bathrooms). Short of National Mall, it is the ideal place to protest the actions of a government out of touch with its constituents.

Wonder if they though about that before they started this whole mess? Me, I would have authorized massive repairs on State Street and throw up some barricades.

More later,

On Wisconsin!

For many years I lived in Wisconsin, which has always been a politically diverse state. It has strong urban centers and old big-shoulder industry, farming and granger movements, universities and a proud heritage of progressive politics. Historically, the state politicos have ranged from Bill Proxmire to Russ Feingold. As a result, it can move politically from the very progressive to the very conservative according to the whims of its voting mass.

And at the moment, it is in the hands of its conservative faction, and paying the price for it. Its new governor, Republican Scott Walker, has already made waves by turning down funding (and jobs) for pointy-headed intellectual stuff like high speed rail and rural Internet (which gives more for the other states, so - Thanks Governor). And it should be no surprise that he wants to engage in the time-honored sport of union-busting, particularly with the state workers.

So the governor wants to deny collective bargaining to the state unions (we're talking public service, teachers, prison guards, but not police and firemen (he specifically did not hit them in hopes of their support)), and have the right fire employees engaged in labor actions. Again, not out of the ordinary for this stripe of politico. Thing is, he's not doing it in a legislation, but rather as part of his emergency budget, hoping to slide it in without any type of opposition.

OK, that's a little snakier than normal. Oh, and when announcing it, he said he has already contacted the National Guard in case the people get all uppity about all this.

Hang on. He did what?

The Governor's office clarified that he did not call OUT the National Guard. He just briefed them on the possibility that as a result of his imperial, unilateral action, people might take umbrage and they should be aware. I think that this is the one bit that went too far, that spun everyone around from "Oh, this is politics as usual" to "Hey, this guy is crazy". Despite having a governor funded heavily by the US Chamber of Commerce (hence the union-busting), the population has a strong history of union support.

The end result has been protests today and tomorrow in Madison, a gem of liberalism in the midst of farm country (think of Austin with better weather). They had 12,000 people there Tuesday, and another thousand who decided to drop by the governor's house to express their displeasure.[Update: Estimate from NPR for Wednesday is 30,000]

Why do I bring it up? Just to get the word out. Most of what I know about this is coming through Facebook and email, from fellow Alliterates who live in the area, and individuals like comic artist John Kovalic (who does the strip Dork Tower). The teachers are turning out tomorrow, and the firefighters are showing up (so much for splitting up the unions). I'm getting some bits from the lefty analysis from the Stranger Blog. But for the most part, the media is pretty durn quiet  (The Seattle Times covered the initial statement from the governor on Page A8, burying the lede in paragraph four). Not a lot of news teams seem to be bound for Madison, Wisconsin.

Maybe they're caught up dispatching teams to Egypt, trying to catch up with THOSE protesters.

More later

[Update: As of the next morning, the story in the Times had moved to A4 and a picture showed huge numbers. The NY Times has picked up the story as well. And the Packers Player Union has chimed in with solidarity for the state workers]

[Update Update: You know the budgetary crisis that the Governor states that the unions have to take cuts to pay for? Turns out it is the result of the Governor's Own Budget.]

[Update Update Update: Now the media is paying attention, but I gotta say - Guys, It ain't Cairo. It's important, but it ain't Cairo. Just saying.]

[Final Update (and I mean it)]: Page one, Seattle Times, below the fold.  Rightwing pundits refer to protesters as rioters. Local police chief, who is used to students burning sofas after a big game, thanks the protesters for their well-mannered behavior so far.