After 16 full episodes, running our City of Mist campaign continues to be a high point of the week for me. Here is the “crime board” page; the first image shows the investigation in the first story arc and the PCs’ circles of influence:
The second shares with my players Detective Suarez’s investigation of the crew in connection with the museum theft of the second story arc.
Just for fun. The boards are set up in Roll20.
Last episode, I opened our first case in our City of Mist: Dead of Night campaign. I started us easy, with the intro adventure provided in the All-Seeing Eye Investigations Starter Box Set.
Although I often have a hard time retrofitting published adventures to a specific group of player characters, this time it turned out pretty easy. Because of the characters my players had created, i.e. pure chance, we had pretty good hooks for the scenario even though it’s based on a completely different crew. Since this introductory scenario is full of handholds for a new crew and MC, it was very reassuring to rely on it rather than second-guess myself. Episode recap after the cut to avoid spoilers.
Continue reading “City of Mist: Dead of Night, Episode 1”
I’m so happy about my current writing projects, I want to share what’s going on.
First, the layout of War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus is in its later stages and looks so darn good! Dale Horstman is doing a fantastic job. If you think this cover looks nice—and it does!—just wait until you see the whole thing.
Second, I’m under contract for more writing for Evil Hat Productions: a Fate World called Sisiutl’s Children. I feel tremulous because writing about other cultures is fraught with danger, but I’m going to give it my best shot and ask for cultural review by knowledgeable people of these cultures. Here is the blurb:
“If you will stare fear in the face, I will be at your back. Together, we will stand up to the Devourers.”
The great spirit Sisiutl has taken it upon himself to help humankind grow in wisdom and strength. He sees light and dark in each soul, and coaxes out the light or punishes evil. Those he finds worthy become heroes — protectors of the Coastal People and mediators with the Spirit World. Bonded with the great water dragons that are Sisiutl’s progeny, they will fight monsters, arbitrate disputes, harvest knowledge, and face the darkness in their own souls.
Sisiutl’s Children is a Pacific Northwest fantasy setting based on the coastal Native cultures — Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and others — mixed with the dragon-riding tales of Naomi Novik and Anne McCaffrey, where the heroes battle supernatural threats to protect their clan. Will you ride the dragon into battle or will you be the dragon?
And thirdly, I’ve also lined up an assignment for Vigilance Press, an as-yet unannounced project in their Tianxia line. This is all so exciting!
Credits: War of Ashes cover mockup: art © 2015 ZombieSmith, layout by Dale Horsten, coming out soon from Evil Hat Productions. Sisiutl mask photo licensed under Public Domain via Wikipedia—carving by Oscar Matilpi.
Time for the essay on the monthly book club reading, Neil Gaiman’s American Gods. (Spoilers, of course!)
I spent a lot of time following connections between symbols, mythological figures, and themes; I was struck by the deliberate choices in which gods were represented and which were not. When you think about different pantheons, you can come up with all kinds of symbols being represented, and not all symbols appear in every pantheon. Gaiman made the choice of using very specific types of gods connecting thanks to very specific symbols; here is my essay on the topic.
This is only my second book essay where visual support is actually part of the critical argument; the previous one was on Alice in Wonderland.
Three groups of traditional deities or complexes prominently feature in Neil Gaiman’s American Gods: gods of light and (re)birth, cthonian gods of death and destruction, and gods of knowledge and trickery. These are not factions, all the gods from one complex are not working together; but they represent the domains, the groups of symbols, that form the core of the novel — the solar myth. A mind map below shows some of the associations we can make. Continue reading “Essay: The “American Gods” Trinity”
The book of the month in my Goodreads post-SF/F-class reading group was Robert Holdstock’s Mythago Wood. Like in the class that preceded it, we can still post essays but on a voluntary basis, and we have relaxed the requirements for word count. Here is my contribution (OK, I admit: I actually posted it to the club on June 1, making it a day late!)
Mythago Wood can be read as a story of the need to conquer the Female Principle in order to obtain legitimate status as the Male Principle, the alpha male.
The plot is driven by the need for the Huxley men – the father George and his two sons in turn – to claim sole possession over one woman despite knowing that others have at least as much “right” to. Indeed, each knows that she is a mythago formed by his predecessors’ longings but still calls her “his.” Continue reading “Mythago Wood: The Crowning of the King”
(Cross-posted to RPG.net and Emerald City Gamefest.)
Legend Walks! – T&J Edition makes a great supplement for Truth & Justice , whether as a resource for players characters imbued by the gods or as a campaign setting sourcebook.
Disclaimer: I participated in the playtest of this edition of Legends Walk! and received a complimentary copy of the PDF version.
The Reef 
