Thursday, September 15, 2011

Dungeonspiration: Atlantis

When I was young, my mother would enter a trance-like state and describe her memories of past lives.  One such session stuck with me vividly.  She reported that in a previous life, she had been a man at Atlantis.  At the time, Atlantis was a collection of thousands of little islands with connecting bridges.  The most common transportation was by boat - powered by a network of crystal energy transmitters that ultimately got their power from one big crystal that pulled its amperage directly from the sun and stars.

My mother had been a scientist who had helped develop the whopping big mega crystal.  The crystal was a source of tremendous raw power.  The Atlantean government decided to use that power against the Lemurians, who were a hostile force on the other side of the planet.  Focusing the stellar forces with the crystal, my mother and her fellow scientists blew up Lemuria - sinking it into the depths of the Pacific ocean.  Regretfully, the shock-waves went round the world and caused Atlantis to sink as well.

Needless to say, I had a voracious appetite for anything I could find out about Atlantis.  The home bookshelves were filled with such content.  Jane Robert's descriptions of Atlantis and multi-colored people riding dinosaurs seemed to back up my mother's recollections.  And Charles Berlitz' memoir about diving in the Caribbean and coming under attack from a crystal powered pyramid shooting laser was great.  Edgar Cayce was a bevy of information, what with all of his access to the ethereal Akashic Records.  And von Däniken's Chariots of the Gods - well - can you say NAZCA?

Eventually I picked up Plato and read his descriptions of Atlantis.  I did a lot of head scratching and sat down with pencil and paper to map out what he described.  This - the definitive source on Atlantis - didn't seem to have anything to do with the Atlantis in my mother's books.  Other than that some sort of land mass sunk, that is.

I kept my eye out for more books, though.  One I found in high school pointed out the similarities of Plato's Atlantis with Troy.  It was a great book, full of very interesting details.  The only problem was that Troy never sank.  Bummer.  Other books pointed out Antarctica and Greenland as possible sources.  Sri Lanka?  Hmmm.

Santorini (Thera)
After a long, fallow time in my Atlantis research, I came back to it with renewed vigor.  Revisiting the theories, most seemed silly and - frankly - wish fulfillment on the part of whoever was advancing a particular theory.

The theory that really made sense was born out of Spyridon Marinatos' excavation of Akrotiri, a city on the Greek island of Thera.  There had been a thriving civilization on the volcanic island.  Then one day, some four thousand years ago, the volcano blew its top, turning most of the island to ash that sank to the bottom of the sea, and burying what was left.  The event spawned tidal waves that severely crippled the surrounding islands, and perhaps hit mainland areas all over the Aegean and Mediterranean.

The Atlanteans appear to be the people archaeologists call the Minoans.  I had already known about the Minoans.  I think the first thing that struck me about them was BOOBS.

Tiny little shirts.
Yeah.  Breasts.  The Minoans of Crete and the surrounding islands had some wonderful art - and a lot of it seemed to focus on breasts.  Or, at least, the bits I remember.  They seemed to have something against bras - and shirts, for that matter.  But really, the Minoans had some wonderful art.  The drawings were very cartoon-like - a favorite style of mine.  The sculptures could be very lifelike - very realistic - especially when focusing on bulls.

The Minoans were a very mysterious lot.  They were just beginning to write at the time, and really only using it to record crop productivity and the number of goats owned by a particular noble.  I did a lot of study on the Minoans, and eventually came to the conclusion that no one know what the hell they are talking about if they say anything definitive about the culture.  They could count sheep, they built buildings and ships, they could paint pretty pictures, and apparently they sacrificed people when they felt the need.  They even, apparently, build a handful of buildings in Egypt and the Levant - or, at least someone was there using very similar architectural and artistic styles.  But what the heck that means is up in the air - though I like the idea of trade embassies, myself.

So, my long search for Atlantis ended with - well - it ended with a great big question mark.  To me, Atlantis is the Minoan civilization predating the more sweeping Mycenaean based culture that swept in from mainland Greece.  But all there are are scraps and trash - leftovers of what appears to have been a bright and vibrant civilization.  But it's really not about the destination.  It's about the trip that brought me there, and everything I learned along the way.

I'd love to create an RPG - or at least setting - based on the Minoans - perhaps with a sprinkle of Greekish proto-mythology dropped in.  What I have in my mind, however, would be a massive undertaking.  And I guess that few would ever want to play it, as it would delve deeply into bronze age cultures and a mindset that is probably very hard for modern players to get into.  D&D with Minoan trappings is not what I am after.

But still, all that I have learned is useful in my campaigns.  If you see powerful, sea-faring cultures in one of my games - you can be assured that there is a little o Atlantis in all of them.

So go forth research what you love.  Even if it's about the gestation period of the tsetse fly, I bet there is something there that can be plopped right into a campaign - making it all the more rich.

Oh, and for your reading pleasure, here is some of the research material on my shelves in my last great fact-finding tour of Atlantis.  Enjoy!

Apollodorus.  (BCE).  The Library of Greek Mythology.
Apollonus of Rhodes.  (BCE).  Jason and the Golden Fleece.
Burr, Elizabeth.  (1993).  The Chiron Dictionary of Greek & Roman Mythology.
Cahill, Thomas.  (2003).  Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea.
Cameron, Pat.  (2003).  Blue Guide: Crete.
Campbell-Dunn, GJK.  (2006).  Who were the Minoans? An African Answer.
Castleden, Rodney.  (1998).  Atlantis Destroyed.
Castleden, Rodney.  (1990).  Minoans: Life in Bronze Age Crete.
Chadwick, John.  (1987).  Linear B and Related Scripts.
Chadwick, John.  (1976).  The Mycenaean World.
Cottrell, Leonard.  (1953).  The Bull of Minos.
Dickinson, Oliver.  (1994).  The Aegean Bronze Age.
Farnoux, Alexandre.  (1993).  Searching for the Legendary Palace of King Minos.
Garrison, Daniel H.  (2000).  Sexual Culture in Ancient Greece.
Graves, Robert  (1955).  The Greek Myths.
Hawkes, Jacquetta.  (1972).  Dawn of the Gods.
Herodotus.  (BCE).  The Histories.
Hesiod.  (BCE).  Theogony.
Hesiod.  (BCE).  Works and Days.
Higgins, Reynold.  (1967).  Minoan and Mycenaean Art.
Homer.  (BCE).  Illiad.
Homer.  (BCE).  Odyssey.
MacGillivray, J. A.  (2001).  Minotaur: Sir Arthur Evans and the Archaeology of the Minoan Myth.
Marinatos, Nanno.  (2010)  Minoan Kingship and the Solar Goddess: A Near Eastern Koine.
Martin, Thomas R.  (1996).  Ancient Greece.
Mathioulakis, D. & I.  (1960).  Crete.
Mohen, Jean-Pierre.  (2000).  The Bronze Age in Europe.
Pellegrino, Charles  (1991).  Unearthing Atlantis.
Plato.  (BCE).  Critias.
Plato.  (BCE).  Timaeus.
Saggs, H. W. F.  (1989).  Civilization Before Greece and Rome.
Snell, Daniel C.  (1997).  Life in the Ancient Near East.
Time-Life Books.  (1987).  The Age of the God-Kings.
Unknown.  (BCE).  Gilgamesh.
Wiedemann, Thomas.  (1981).  Greek & Roman Slavery.
Wilson, Ian.  (2001).  Past Lives: Unlocking the Secrets of Our Ancestors.

- Ark

Monday, September 12, 2011

And I Thought Holes Were For Throwing People Down

After some intense carousing, the party found themselves wandering the Wilds again. They were somewhat grumpy, owing vast sums to the City of Fultum, the Thieves' Guild, and the Assassin's Guild in long night of debauchery.  Oh - and there were the accusations of horse molestation, too.

They don't take roads anymore, so they didn't catch the attention of yet another green dragon in the sky.  This one was patrolling the skies over Barton Hill.  Yes, that Barton Hill, the site of the infamous Cube of Force attack.  They carefully hid while The Boy's halfling thief - Ferrit - shimmied up a tree.

With the aide of Ferrit's magical glasses, they saw the dragon light inside the walls of Barton Hill - half a mile away.  They also saw that the human guards on the wall had been replaced with orc guards.

Tim was livid.  The last time they attacked the city, Sai-Lin - Ron's cleric/Magic-user - had talked everyone into not burning the whole place down - just the city hall.  Think of the children, was the cleric's plea.  But this time it was unanimous - burn the mother to the ground.

Around four months ago - real time - the party found a set of wands that acted almost exactly like the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device in the Portal video game, the Wands of Doors.  Suddenly, the entire party remembers that they have the wands (gotta love gamer's selective memories,) and begin to try to figure out how they might work outside of the dungeon in which they were found.

After some Q&A, Sai-Lin determines/remembers that the Wands only work on granite.  They have Ferrit eyeball the walls of Barton Hill.  Are they granite?  I make a roll and give it a one in three chance.  Crap.  Yes, the walls of Barton Hill are granite.

After looking at the town, they only place they can place a portal hole so it gives a view inside of Barton Hill is on one of the two towers.  They can do that, alright, but they need to have portal near to them - and they are not willing to go closer than half a mile near the town.

"Are there any pieces of granite around?" they ask.  Some pebbles, yes.  But they need a space six feet in radius to get a portal to appear.  I let them know there is nothing like that around.

"What about those city walls?" Mervyn's cleric dwarf suddenly pipes up.  "There had to be a quarry somewhere around to get that much stone.  A granite quarry."

Greeeeat.  The frikkin dwarf has turned into frikkin Columbo.

"Okay okay, you find the quarry.  It's got all the slabs you'd ever need."

They drag a slab to half-mile mark from the town and place a portal hole on it, then have Ferrit place the other side of the hole on the granite tower.  The party then peers down the hole in the slab and sees the city square below.

Thirty orc stand in formation in the square.  One one side of the square, the Church of the Lawgiver sits, looking worse for wear.  It appears as though the front face of the church has been ripped off.  Rubble is on the ground around it, but they can't see directly into the hole in the church from the angle of thier portal.

"Is that hole about the size of a dragon?" one of the players asks.

Crap.

The characters readied flasks of oil, bows, slings, and torches - grinning with delight - all aiming downward.

(This, dear friends, is what we call a CLIFFHANGER.)

- Ark

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Dungeonspiration: Etymology


When I was younger, I used to grab a dictionary off the shelf, sit down on the floor, flip to a page, and just start reading for hours. One of the things I particularly liked about a good old fashioned dictionary was that little piece before the formal definition of a word - the etymology bit.  I was always fascinated about how the meanings, uses, and forms of words shifted over time.  Those little blurbs were always too small - just offering a hint of what that particular word had been up to over the centuries.

Twenty years ago I stumbled onto a book by Robert Claiborne called The Roots of English. It's basically an etymological dictionary, but as Claiborne states, "It's in no sense a comprehensive dictionary of Indo-European roots but rather on of Indo-European roots in English.  And only some of those . . . about a third.  In partial compensation, I've added a modest selection of non-Indo-European words or roots that have contributed to our everyday vocabulary."

The Roots of English is fascinating to read.  Most entries have interesting little stories about these 'proto-words,' and Claiborne makes interesting links from one word to another. I learned about the word "arkhein," from this book:

[Greek ARKHEIN, to begin, > take the lead, which > rule (rulers - sometimes - take the lead, though not always in the right direction).  The "begin" sense > ANCIENT ("from the beginning"), ARCHAEOLOGY (the study of ancient things), and the ARCHIVES where ancient documents are stored, frequently enshrining ARCHAIC laws.  The "rule" sense produced the MONARCHY ruled by one person and the ARCHITECT who is the "ruler" of construction - a master builder.]

Of course, arkhein also reminded me of a combination of arcane and Arkham as well, so it has been a favorite word of mine for two decades.

What I found particularly useful was that I could take the root words from the book and turn them into good words for role playing and story creation.   Fantasy words made with real English root words seem to strike a chord with the listener much better than a word formed out of gobbledygook.  There is even an index in the back of the book that links English to the root word, making word creation much easier.

The Roots of English is a great resource for DMs and word-o-philes and I highly recommend it.

Oh, and as a little side note, Robert Claiborne was a fascinating guy himself.  He was a folk singer who toured with Woody Guthrie, a victim of the House Un-American Activities Committee, an editor at Scientific American and various Time-Life science books, and wrote on subject such as medicine, astronomy, climate-anthropology, marine biology, and linguistics.  He was quite a fascinating guy.

So go grab a dictionary, a comfy patch of rug, a quiet afternoon, and a glass of Hi-C and go invent a new language or two. :)

- Ark

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Vayniris Anthology Update


Two giraffes use peer pressure to try and convince
The Boy to spend his lunch money on Warhammer 40K minis.
I've been spending a lot of my time recently working on the Vayniris Anthology Project.  I'm pretty excited about it, and I think the end product will be a great collection of short stories.

For those who don't know, the project is an attempt to produce an 'Appendix N worthy' shared world anthology, set in a vast urban fantasy sprawl.  More information about it can be found in this post.  The deadline for submitting stories in December 31st, 2011.  This is a non-profit project, with all proceeds going to a children's charity - most likely Bryan's House. If you are interested in contributing, shoot me an email and I'll send you the guidelines.

I've been poking around, getting a feel for the cost of art for the book cover, and it makes my wallet want to run and hide.  Honestly, I'm not a great spender.  But I'd like to have a nice, spiff-o-riffic cover that entices people to buy the book and raise money for kids in need.  This has brought me to two different lines of thought.  1) Why not just ask people to donate art? or 2) Start up a Kickstarter project and raise any money I need that way.

So . . .

1) Probably wouldn't work.  I'm looking for something pretty specific in the cover art - something that would not be amiss on bookshelves in the sci-fi\fantasy section of B. Daltons or Waldenbooks back in 1981.  I'm not sure an artist donating their time and effort would put up with my picky-ness on the matter.  (But if somewhere out there is a masochist artist willing to put up with me, feel free to reply below or send me an email.)

2) Kickstarter - hmm.  Seems like a magical well where people go and scoop up money for free.  I'm sure there is some catch, but I haven't looked very far into the process.  I'm pretty sure that even a vague amount of interest could generate enough cash to pay for cover art - but do I have to sell my soul?  Heck, it could potentially get enough cash to publish in some manner other than Lulu.  If anyone has experience in using Kickstarter - let me know your experiences, good or bad.

The more I think about this project, the better I want it to do - I want excellent stories that people will love to read, an excellent framework that will showcase the author's work in the best possible light, a kicking cover that evokes exactly the right mood, and a final product that can go beyond the confines of the OSR and really make some money for the kiddos.

So, anyway, I'm scratching my head at logistics here.  Thanks in advance for any advice.

- Ark

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Dungeonspiration: Geography

Earlier this week I was poking around in one of my bookcases and rediscovered a book that I hadn't seen for a while: The Geography Behind History, by W. Gordon East.  Like Br'er Rabbit's tar baby, this book tends to grab me and not let me go.

Early in my DMing career, I was having problems with world building.  All of the standard 'Tolkien ingedients' were there, but the worlds seemed dead, flat, and nonsensical. But soon, I discovered The Geography Behind History, and discovered why.

My original world-building method involved tracing the outlines of a continent, and then tossing in some mountains, rivers, forest, and deserts.  After that, I'd pick some good races and evil races, develop a timeline of wars and other important events - and then start the campaign.  The big problem was my history very little to do with the map I drew.

In a mere two hundred pages, W. Gordon East packs a huge amount of information about how people and events are inextricably linked to the local geography.  He discusses why people pick the areas that they settle, how roads develop from animal trails, and how borders drawn on maps have little to do with reality.  There are over seventy maps that explore the relations of climate, vegetation, trade routes, population, viticulture, and a heap of things that I can't even remember.

The book may be a bit dated, since it was published in 1965.  I'm not sure where, though.  East speaks of theories of early migration to the New World that, while discredited in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, have made a big comeback recently. It's discussion on Cold War politics and geography in the last chapter may not be 'the fresh new thing,' but it still has importance in today's world.

Below is a table of contents to give you a look at the structure:

Geography as an Historical Document
Old Maps as Historical Documents
Geographical Position
Climate and History
Routes
Towns
Frontiers and Boundaries
Habitat and Economy
The Dawn of Civilisation
The Dawn of Civilisation in the Americas
Europe and China
International Politics

I checked on Amazon, and was surprised that they had the book in stock.  The only two reviewers had nothing good to say, though.  Like any old English textbook, it can be dry at times, but it's the kind of dry that I like.  I have read this book many times and have always found things that sparked wonderful ideas.  If you can make it through all 1,342 pages of H. G. Wells' The Outline of History, then The Geography Behind History will be a breeze. 

So go read a book on geography and get inspired to draw some maps and develop some really interesting history and cultures.  :)

- Ark

Monday, August 29, 2011

Altered Luna

When mankind began to generate more energy than it could easily consume, it turned its sights to the Moon, and dreams of a second, 'real' home. Two hundred years of man-made cometary bombardment and genetic bio-engineering have created the Moon of the 28th century. 

The Moon of the 28th century.  Click to zoom in.
While the atmosphere is not thick enough to support life beyond simple algae and lichen, the lunar seas seethe with bright green genetically altered single and multi-cellular organisms hard at work removing toxins from the environment and creating greenhouse gases as an after-effect. Lack of a breathable atmosphere has not stopped people from building cities on the moon, as can be seen by the lights in the southeastern shaded area.

From ancient times, this area has been called Mare Fecunditatis, but modern inhabitants prefer to refer to it as 'the Sea of Nookie.' Scientists say that we are still two hundred years from having a proper beach party and skinny-dip there.

[Image done with lots of fiddling and painting in Adobe Photoshop.  Thanks goes out to NASA & JPL, for gathering the data, NOAA, for some nifty clouds to steal, and Arthur C. Clarke, a man who inspired me to play with fantasy in a framework of science.]

- Ark

Friday, August 26, 2011

Meet the Victims

It has come to my attention that some of you actually read this blog for my re-canting of the tales of joy and woe at the gaming table.  That's sort of odd to me, as one of the first things I learned about the cultural aspects of D&D Club was not to talk about D&D Club.  No no one really wants to hear about your 47th level Ranger.

However, it appears perfectly acceptable to talk about other people's 47th level Rangers. :)

So here is to the guys who actually write the stories I tell - the guys who put up with my blood rage, funny voices, innappropritae role play, and fuzzy rule recalling.  Come, meet the victims.

(Names have been changed to protect the guilty.)

The Boy - my tween son, who's been playing role playing games for four years now. He's a very crafty player, with a recent penchant for playing halflings - though he loves to make fighters named Regdar too.  The Boy achieved Manhood on Jun 8th, 2011, when his character was eaten by a giant carnivorous plant in a game of Metamorphosis Alpha run by JIM FRIKKIN' WARD.  I've never had such a proud or emotional moment in my life. I tear up just thinking about it.

Mervyn - a neighbor in his very early twenties.  Mervyn is an 'in your face' player - the kind of guy who looks for the largest monster in the batch and charges full steam into it.  His naturally high Charisma stat tends to convince others to do the same thing.  He's been playing war games, card games, board games, video games, and role playing games since he was an embryo, and enjoys pushing a game to it's limits.  I played D&D with Mervyn's father for a good long while, until he passed away last year.

Kaye - the new kid on the block.  He's a good friend of Mervyn's and around the same age.  He seems to like to play big, buff fighter types who do a lot of damage.  I'd guess that it might be more of a self-defense mechanism developed while playing with gung-ho Mervyn. :) Kaye watched us play, then wanted to play 4e with us. After that, he wanted to join my Labyrinth Lord game, so either he is mentally unbalanced, or he actually likes Old School Play. Or both, perhaps.

Ron - an old-ass gamer who is almost as old as me.  He always seems to have a game going somewhere.  He drives quite a way to get to the games, so I try to be mindful of that and present something interesting to him during games.  Ron is a thoughtful player, who likes to plan for contingencies and have all of his ducks in a row.  Regretfully, the universe hates Ron, and will fuck him over on just about any dice roll.  He once had three characters die - in a row.  He's a trooper, though, and slogs through whatever the universe hands him.

Tim - Stark . . . Raving . . . Mad. Tim is a Maelstrom of Chaos in a World Gone Wrong. The only predictable thing about him is that he is unpredictable.  In one game, he played a dragonborn who 'wore' a kobold in order to help convert it.  In that same game, he decided to play that very same kobold - as a converted monk.  This game, he is playing an elf who worships a god that doesn't exist.  To be honest, earlier in my career, I would have kicked Tim out of the group for his disruptive ways, but these days - I say screw it and let the chips fall where they may. :)

So that's the gang!  They are going to kill me for the pictures I drew of them - especially poor Tim - but oh well - it was worth it.

- Ark